Fix For Emails From Outlook Showing a ? Instead of a £ Symbol
- StroudyIT
- 5 minutes ago
- 2 min read
If you use Outlook Classic for your emails and have noticed that the £ symbol in your outgoing messages appears as a question mark ?, you are not alone.
This issue can cause confusion, especially in professional or financial communications where currency symbols matter.
The problem is fairly recent and likely due to a recent Microsoft update.
It arises from incorrect character encoding that does not support the pound sign correctly. This blog post will guide you through practical steps to fix this issue and ensure your emails display the £ symbol properly.
Understanding Why the £ Symbol Shows as a Question Mark
The £ symbol is part of the extended ASCII character set and Unicode, but if your email client or the recipient’s email client does not use the correct character encoding, the symbol can appear as a question mark or a box. This happens because the character code for £ is not recognized or supported in the current encoding.
Outlook Classic, depending on its settings and the email format used (Plain Text, HTML, or Rich Text), may default to an encoding that does not support the £ symbol. Additionally, if the font used in the email does not include the £ character, it can also display incorrectly.
Check and Change the Email Encoding Settings in Outlook Classic
If this has only affected you recently, then the likely fix will be by adjusting the encoding settings in Outlook Classic. Here’s how to do it:
Open Outlook Classic.
Click on the File Menu.
Go to the Options menu in the message window.
Go to the Advanced section and then find International options.
Select Unicode (UTF-8) encoding for Outgoing messages and vCards (as per the screenshot below). UTF-8 supports a wide range of characters, including the £ symbol.
Send a test email to yourself or a colleague to check if the £ symbol appears correctly.
By setting the encoding to UTF-8, you ensure that special characters like £ are preserved and displayed properly across different email clients.
Summary
Following the above steps should avoid encoding mismatches that have started occurring after a recent Microsoft update, and ensure that the £ symbol does not show as a question mark when sending email from Outlook Classic.
