Objectives of this Tutorial

On completion of this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Plan a meeting and invite attendees
• Add or remove meeting attendees
• Reschedule or cancel a meeting
• Accept or decline a meeting request
• Propose a new time for a meeting
• Schedule the use of a resource for a meeting

Arrange a Meeting

Setting up a meeting combines the actions of creating an appointment and creating a mail message.

You pick a date and time, location and the list of attendees then an email message is sent automatically, inviting each attendee. You can include an agenda or other notes for the meeting with the email message.

When you send invitations, the recipients are prompted to accept or decline. Through Outlook you can keep track of who has accepted, declined or not responded.

Note: This feature is designed primarily for use in a workgroup situation. You can send invitations to recipients over the internet, but they will only be able to reply using normal email, so you will have to track their status manually. Another option is to send the meeting request as an iCal email attachment. Lookup "About sending internet meeting requests" in the online help for details.

To arrange a meeting

• Switch to Calendar view, by clicking the Calendar icon on the Outlook Bar
• From the File menu, select New then Meeting Request (SpeedKey: Ctrl + Shift + Q)

OR

• Click the down arrow to the right of the New button and select Meeting Request

The Meeting dialogue box is displayed.



Tip: Drag-and-drop contact(s) into the Calendar to schedule a meeting quickly.

• Enter a Subject: and Location:
• Type a message
• Click the Scheduling tab

The Meeting Planner is displayed.

• Click the Add Others... button then from the drop down menu, select Add from Address Book...

The Select Attendees and Resources dialogue box is displayed. This works just like the Address Book you use to address messages.

• Select a name from the list then click Required -> or Optional -> as appropriate
• Add further names if required
• Click OK

The Attendee Availability tab is updated to show recipients' calendar information. Any coloured blocks indicate that the recipient may have conflicting appointments. A hashed line indicates that no calendar information is available, either because it is not published to the workgroup or because the recipient is not part of the workgroup (for example, if they are being contacted over the internet).



You may need to adjust the time of the meeting to fit everyone's schedule

• Click-and-drag the green (start time) and red (end time) bars to set the date, time and duration of the meeting manually (or enter dates and times in the list boxes at the bottom of the form)

OR

• Click Options, then AutoPick
• Choose whether to fit in all or just required people

• Click the << AutoPick Next >> buttons to move the selected time forward or backward by half-hour increments
• When you have scheduled the meeting, click Send

The meeting is entered into your calendar and the meeting requests are sent to the invited attendees.