You are on page 1of 2

Computing Help Desk @ Buffalo State College

Butler Library Reference Room | Phone: (716) 878-4357

User’s Guide: Scheduling Meetings in Outlook


You can use Outlook to schedule meetings, check the availability of attendees, and send each attendee an e-mail
invitation to the meeting. Each attendee then has the option to accept or decline the invitation, or propose a different
meeting time. If the user accepts the meeting time, the appointment will be added to the user’s calendar in Outlook.

Creating a Meeting Request in Outlook

1. Open Outlook and click File > New > Meeting Request. The Meeting Request window opens.

2. Next, click the To… button to search for people to invite to the meeting. When you locate a name, click the
Required or Optional button at the bottom.

Note You can only schedule meetings with other Buffalo State employees; the Meeting Request feature will not work with Buffalo
State students, or anyone with a non-Buffalo State address.

3. After selecting the meeting attendees, enter the subject, location, start and end time, and any other relevant
information about the meeting.

4. Next, click on the Scheduling tab at the top to view the availability of each attendee. In the example below, three
people are free during the proposed time, but two people are not (Kari is out of the office, and Judith is busy).

Computing and Technology Services


www.buffalostate.edu/cts
Computing Help Desk @ Buffalo State College
Butler Library Reference Room | Phone: (716) 878-4357

5. When you are ready to send the meeting request click the Send button. This will add the meeting to your calendar,
and send an invitation to each recipient you invited to the meeting.

Responding to a Meeting Request in Outlook

1. Open Outlook and open the meeting request invitation.


2. Click one of the following buttons: Accept, Tentative, Decline or Propose New Time

3. When you click one of these buttons, you will be presented with the
following options:

• To send your response with no comments, select Send the


response now, and then click OK.
• To include comments with your response, select Edit the
response before sending, type your comments, and then
click Send.
• If you don't want a response to be sent to the meeting
organizer, select Don't send a response, and then click
OK.

Note If you select Don’t send a response, the meeting organizer will have no way of knowing whether or not you
plan on attending the meeting.

4. If you choose either Accept or Tentative in step 2, the meeting will automatically be added to your Outlook
calendar.

Note If at some point you decide you won’t be able to attend the meeting (or you want to propose a new time), you can notify
the meeting organizer by double-clicking the appointment on your Outlook calendar. When the meeting window opens, follow
steps 2-3 above.

Revised: July 2007 (JPW)

Computing and Technology Services


www.buffalostate.edu/cts

You might also like