Meetings

Meetings
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Scheduling Meetings

Create an Appointment. Remember that you can put more detailed information about the meeting in the large text box near the bottom. Don't worry about selecting the date and time for the meeting - that will come later.
Click on the Invite Attendees button on the Toolbar
Click on the Attendee Availability tab to display the following screen:

Use the Global Address List to select attendees. Notice that you can categorize attendees as Required, Optional, and Resources (remember that Resources are prefaced with an = sign).
Note: The potential for confusion here is enormous - tread carefully. Most Resources should actually be placed in the Required window. The Resources window is used for the following type of scenario: You have only 3 conference rooms that are acceptable to use for your meeting, but all 3 are frequently booked. Place all 3 of them in the Resources window - the reason will become clear shortly.
Click OK when done selecting. Your screen will look similar to the following:

Note: A brief explanation of the above dialog box

	Attendees Busy times are displayed across from their names (there is a legend below the screen to show the color codes for Tentative, Busy, or Out of Office)
	Across from the All Attendees line is the "resolution" or "summation" of all attendees Busy times. In other words, if one required attendee is Out of Office, then that time is not acceptable, therefore the resolution line shows Out of Office.
	The current meeting time is displayed in white and bordered by a green bar on the left and a purple bar on the right.

Click on the down arrow on the AutoPick bar to display the following menu:

Most of the time you will probably use the All People and Resources selection, but if you have selected 3 conference rooms (as suggested in Step 5), then click on All People and One Resource or Required People and One Resource so that you will only schedule a single conference room.
Clicking on the chevrons will now automatically find acceptable meeting times for your attendees. The right-pointing chevrons (>>) will move your selection forward in time, and the left-pointing chevrons (<<) will move you backward in time.
After you have selected the meeting time, click Send. Outlook will send emails to all attendees and resources (it will ignore the 2 conference rooms you didn't schedule and put the selected conference room in the Location field).
After awhile you can check on the status of your attendees responses by clicking on the Show attendee status box. A tracking screen will appear similar to the one below:

You may still invite new attendees by clicking on the Invite Others button.
If one of your Required Attendees rejects your meeting plan, you can adjust your meeting time and start a whole new round of emails by sending and tracking the adjusted schedule.

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This page was last edited on 09/07/2000.