Responding to Meeting Requests

 < Day Day Up > 



 Microsoft Office Specialist   Just as you can send meeting requests, other people can send them to you. When you receive a meeting request, you can respond in one of four ways:

  • You can accept the request and inform the requester that you will attend. Meetings that you accept are automatically entered in your Calendar.

  • You can tentatively accept a request, indicating that you might be able to attend the meeting. Meetings that you accept tentatively are also entered in your Calendar, but your free/busy information will show you as only tentatively scheduled for that time.

  • You can propose a new meeting time, in which case the request is referred to the meeting organizer for confirmation. Your Calendar shows the proposed new meeting time as tentatively scheduled.

  • You can decline a meeting, in which case the request is deleted and no entry is made in your Calendar. When you decline a meeting, you can choose whether Outlook notifies the person who sent the request.

In this exercise, you will accept a meeting request, decline a meeting request, and propose a new meeting time in response to a meeting request.

USE the SBSMeetings data file in the practice file folder for this topic. This practice file is located in the My Documents\Microsoft Press\Outlook 2003 SBS\Meetings folder and can also be accessed by clicking Start/All Programs/Microsoft Press/Outlook 2003 Step by Step.

BE SURE TO start Outlook and open the SBSMeetings data file before beginning this exercise.

OPEN the practice Inbox in the SBS Meetings data file folder.

  1. In the practice Inbox, double-click the Weekly Status meeting request.

    The Meeting form appears.

  2. To view the meeting in your Calendar before you respond, click the Calendar button on the toolbar.

    Your Calendar appears in a new window, displaying the date of the requested meeting. For recurring meetings, the date of the first meeting is displayed. The requested meeting has a blue-striped bar at the left, which means it is tentatively scheduled.

  3. In the open Calendar window, click the Close button.

    The Calendar closes.

  4. On the Meeting form, click the Accept button.

    A message box appears, prompting you to choose how you want to respond.

    click to expand

    Tip 

    When accepting or declining a meeting, you can choose to send a standard response, send a response that you compose yourself, or send no response. If you don’t send a response to the meeting organizer, your acceptance will not be tallied in the Meeting form. The organizer and other attendees will not know whether you are planning to attend the meeting.

  5. With the Send the response now option selected, click OK.

    Your response is sent to the person who requested the meeting, the Meeting form closes, and the meeting is entered in your Calendar.

  6. In the Inbox, click the Project Kick-Off meeting request; then in the Reading Pane, click the Decline button.

    A message box appears, prompting you to choose how you want to respond.

  7. With the Edit the response before sending option selected, click OK.

    The Meeting Response form appears. The status bar and Subject box indicate that you are declining the Project Kick-Off meeting request.

  8. In the message body, type I will be out of the office on this day.

  9. On the toolbar, click the Send button.

    Your response is sent, and the Meeting form closes. The meeting is not added to your Calendar.

  10. In the Inbox, right-click the Quarterly Status message, and on the shortcut menu, click Propose New Time. If prompted to join the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service, click Cancel.

    The Propose New Time dialog box appears. The current meeting time is indicated in yellow.

  11. In the Free/Busy area, click the 11:00 column, and drag the Meeting Time’s right edge to 12:00. Then click the 10:00 column, and drag the Meeting Time’s left edge to 11:00.

    The meeting start and end times are updated to reflect your changes.

    click to expand

  12. Click the Propose Time button.

    The Propose New Time dialog box closes, and the Meeting Response form appears. The subject of the response indicates that you are proposing a new time for the meeting.

    click to expand

  13. In the body of the message, type I will be out of the office on Monday morning., and on the toolbar, click the Send button.

    Your response is sent, and the Meeting form closes. The meeting is added to your Calendar as tentatively scheduled for the original meeting time.

start sidebar
Automatically Responding to Meeting Requests

You can choose to respond to meeting requests automatically. Outlook will process meeting requests and cancellations as you receive them, responding to requests, adding new meetings to your calendar, and removing cancelled meetings from your calendar. If you choose, Outlook will automatically decline meeting requests that conflict with existing items on your calendar. You can also choose to automatically decline any request for a recurring meeting.

To instruct Outlook to automatically respond to meeting requests:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

    The Options dialog box appears.

  2. On the Preferences tab, click the Calendar Options button, and then click the Resource Scheduling button.

    The Resource Scheduling dialog box appears.

  3. Select the Automatically accept meeting requests and process cancellations check box.

  4. Select the Automatically decline conflicting meeting requests and/or the Automati cally decline recurring meeting requests check boxes if you want Outlook to do this.

  5. Click OK to close each open dialog box.

end sidebar



 < Day Day Up > 



Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Step by Step 2003
Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))
ISBN: 0735615217
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 116

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net