Sending a Meeting Request

Open a new meeting request form using New, Meeting Request or by opening an appointment and choosing the I n vite Attendees button. This adds the To field, Meeting Workspace button, and the This Is an Online Meeting Using: check box and drop-down controls to the form (see Figure 11.12).

Figure 11.12. A meeting request form includes a To field so that you can invite other people to meetings using email.

If you decide you need the appointment but don't want to invite anyone , click the Cancel Invitation button and the form is changed back to a normal appointment form.

Meeting Workspace is used with SharePoint Portal Servers (SPS) or Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). This is useful only if both you and the attendees have access to either SPS or WSS. Choosing Meeting Workspace opens the Workspace task pane. If you previously created a workspace, you can select it or create a new workspace from the Workspace task pane.

Online meetings can use NetMeeting, Windows Media Services, or Exchange Conferencing Server. After choosing the service you're using, the meeting form expands to show the server fields necessary to connect to your desired service.

The A ctions menu enables you to choose to Reques t Responses and A llow New Time Proposals. The Reques t Responses menu is useful when you just need to add an appointment to someone's calendar and either it's only for informational purposes or the recipient plans to attend . Select Allow New Time Proposals when you want to allow attendees to suggest a new time if the time you selected isn't convenient for them.

When setting up a meeting, you have the options of making it required or optional for the attendee and of adding the meeting to a resource calendar. Although using resources is generally useful only for Exchange Server users, you can do so as long as the resource (usually a meeting room) has its own mailbox and someone uses Outlook to check the resource's mailbox.

Select the Scheduling tab to check the Free/busy information for your attendees (see Figure 11.13). Add additional attendees by typing their names or email addresses in the attendee column. If you have access to the attendees' free/busy information, existing appointments are blocked out. Hash marks across the calendar indicate that you don't have access to the person's free/busy information.

Figure 11.13. Use the Scheduling tab to add attendees or change the options for the attendees.

Select an icon in the column to the left of an attendee's name to change that person's status from required to optional. Select the mail icon to send the meeting request. Use the Zoom drop-down list to select different views of the free/busy calendar.

The To: button on the Appointment tab opens the Select Attendees and Resources dialog. Use it to pick from your address book. Clicking the Add Others button, and choosing the Add from A ddress Book menu on the Scheduling tab opens this dialog as well.

The O p tions button on the Schedule tab has four options:

• Show O nly Working Hours ” Working hours are set in T ools, O ptions, Preferences, C alendar Options.

• S how Calendar Details ” Shows the appointment subject on the free/busy calendar, instead of the colored block. You can always see appointment details if you hover the mouse over the block, unless the private flag is set.

• A utopick ” Picks a time and date for the meeting, based on the free/busy time.

• R efresh Free/Busy ” Updates the attendee's free/busy information.

After you're finished creating the meeting request, choose Send. If all goes well, the recipient will receive a meeting request; when he accepts it, you'll get the acceptance back.

Using free/busy information isn't limited to Exchange Server users. You can publish your free/busy information to any location to which you have read and write access, including a computer on your network or on the Internet. Microsoft offers a free free/busy server.