Scheduling a Meeting in Outlook with Exchange

A meeting is an appointment that includes other people and can include resources such as conference rooms. Responses to your meeting requests appear in your Inbox.

1. In Calendar, on the Home tab, click New Meeting.

2. In the To… field enter the email address of the desired attendees. If you are just scheduling a room for yourself, you can skip this part.

Alternately, you can click the To box to open the Global Address List and search for the contact. Once you select the contact, either add them as Required or Optional then click OK.

3. In the Subject box, type a description for the meeting.
4. If you are using a conference room for this meeting click the Rooms button and scroll down to look for the desired room and then double-click the room. (You can also search for the room to get there faster.)
5. If you are not using a conference room but you want to still designate a location, simply type in a location.

 Note   This will not book rooms if you type in the room, you must click the rooms button for that)

6. In the Start time and End time lists, click the start and end time for the meeting. If you select the All-day event check box, the event shows as a full 24-hour event, lasting from midnight to midnight.
7. In the meeting request body, type any information that you want to share with the recipients (similar to an email). You can also attach files.
8. Click Scheduling Assistant (in the Meeting tab itself) to find the best time for your meeting by comparing it to your attendee’s availability.

Important: Make sure to use the scheduling feature if you are booking a room for the meeting. If you do not check to make sure the room is free or booked for that time, the room will reject the meeting and you will have to change the meeting time for everyone.

9. The free/busy grid shows the availability of attendees. The blue rectangle represents the duration of the meeting. As for the horizontal bars: Blue=busy, blank=free, diagonal lines= tentatively busy, maroon=out of office. Make sure everyone is either free or tentatively busy within the window you have blocked (this is not required as the request is still sent out, only the room, if busy, will reject automatically).

 Note    You can drag the blue rectangle to adjust the start and end time of your meeting.

10. To set up a recurring meeting, on the Meeting tab, click Recurrence. Choose the options for the recurrence pattern you want, and then click OK.
11. When you add a recurrence pattern to a meeting request, the Meeting tab changes to Recurring Meeting.
12. To change the advance time of the meeting reminder, click the Reminder dropdown, and select the time you want. Click None to turn off the reminder.
13. The organizer can also set the reminder time for recipients by changing the reminder time on the meeting invitation. If the organizer does not change the default reminder time on the invitation, the recipients will each use their own default reminder.
14. To send the meeting invite click the Send button from either the Appointment or Scheduling Assistant view.

Others will receive the invitation in their Inbox and can Accept, Decline, or tentatively accept. You, as the meeting organizer, will be notified of any actions by the recipients.

15. To cancel a meeting, select it on your calendar, and click Cancel Meeting at the top. Then click Send Cancellation. This will notify others that the meeting has been cancelled and remove it from everyone’s calendars.