HOW TO: 

Set Up and Manage Meetings Using Outlook

Using this feature will automatically add the meeting to attendees' calendars, and track responses and availability of invitees.

Sending the invitation

1. Click the down-arrow next to New, and select Meeting Request. You can also click on File> New> Meeting Request on the menu bar. The first view is similar to a new appointment window, with the addition of a 'To...' field to enter or select the email addresses of attendees.

2. Enter the email addresses of the people you want to meet with. If you click the To... button, there are separate fields for Required participants and Optional participants. If you enter the email addresses directly in the text box, they will all be sent as Required participants.

3. Enter the subject, location, time, and any message you want to add in the message field. The fields are pretty self-explanatory, especially if you use the calendar in Outlook regularly. You might want to put something in your message asking them to open the message rather than just reading it from the preview pane, because the response buttons are only available then. (They could also right-click the message, and the response choices are available on the menu that appears.)

If you click on the 'Attendee Availability' tab, you'll see that everyone you are inviting has been added to the chart, but it won't necessarily give you any information yet on whether they are available.

4. When you have all of the relevant information entered, Click the Send button. This sends out an email to all invitees and places the appointment in your calendar.

Responding to Invitations

When the recipient opens the email, they will have buttons for Accept, Tentative and Decline, and a 'Calendar...' button to open their calendar in a separate window. Clicking on one of those three buttons will send you back an email with their response appended to the beginning of the subject line (i.e., Accepted: Subject line). If they click Accept, they will also have the appointment added to their calendar.

Viewing Responses and modifying Invitations

After you have received responses, you can check on status by opening the appointment in your calendar and clicking on the 'Attendee Availability' tab. This shows who has responded and whether they have accepted or declined. There also is a button near the bottom of this window to send the invitation to additional people (Invite Others...).

If you right-click a person's name in this window, there is also an option to view their calendar; but I believe you would have to have permissions granted on their calendar in order for it to actually open.

There is also a "Send Update..." button which gives the option to re-send the message to all attendees, or just those you have added. When you choose one of the options, the message is sent with no opportunity to change it! (To change the message you edit the large text box on the 'Appointment' tab.)

Cancelling meetings

If you need to cancel the meeting, all you have to do is delete the meeting from your calendar. This will bring up a dialog box where you can choose whether to Send a cancellation and delete the meeting, or delete it without sending a cancellation. Even if recipients respond with Attend after you've cancelled, it will not put the appointment in their calendars.

Compatibility

This works Outlook-to-Outlook obviously, but I'm not sure about other mail programs or Internet mail. I'd probably have to know the specific program to determine whether it was compatible.

If you want to experiment with this feature you can send me an invitation to respond to, or if you want to see what it looks like from the receiving end I can send out invitations. It's much easier to understand when you can open up the windows and look at the options and what they do.