Asian versions of Communicator have a pre-set default encoding for Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. There is something one might call an encoding inheritance principle. By this principle, any new window will have the same encoding as the old window from which the user opened this new one. If there are more than one windows already open with different encoding settings, then the new window will inherit the encoding of the top window from which it has been opened. If you bring forward a window with a different encoding, then its child will have a different encoding inherited from its parent.
Some windows have their own encoding menus.
In this case, the user can change the inherited encoding. In other windows, however, there are no visible encoding menus anywhere. It's useful to remember that in such a case, the parent window's encoding is in force. It's useful to keep in mind that there is no such thing as an encoding-free window. Every window has an encoding setting whether or not an encoding menu is visible.