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Setting the Free/Busy Options in Outlook’s Calendar for Meeting Planner

1. From the Inbox screen, click Options from the Tools menu.

   

2. Select Calendar options.

   

3. Enter your work week information in the top section. Then select the Free/Busy options in the bottom section.

   

4. You need only change the number in the Publish box from 2 months to the number of months you desire. The rest of the default information can remain as is.

   

5. To schedule a meeting from the calendar screen, select either New Meeting Request or Plan a Meeting from the Actions menu. (We will use Plan a Meeting in these instructions).

   

6. Enter the meeting start and end times in the bottom section dont forget to select the date as well as the times.

   

7. Click the Invite Others button on the left.

   

8. In the Show Names From The box, change it to Global Address List to view the entire campus list.

   

9. Select and enter the desired attendees. Names can be put in the Required or Optional attendee boxes. Click OK when finished.

   

10. Notice the attendees are listed on the left and their availability is shown in colored lines on the right. In the example, Marietta is free to attend the meeting at 1:30, but the Network Engineer is busy (blue) from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. This is the only information that others will see on your calendar.

11. Notice the AutoPick button to the left of the meeting times. Using this feature, Outlook will select the next available tine that all of the attendees have a free slot with enough time to schedule your meeting. (Which in this example, is Monday, June 3rd at 8:00 am).

    

12. When finished, click the Make Meeting button. This brings up an e-mail message window. Enter and change any information in this area and click the Send button to send the meeting request.

    

13. Meetings that are accepted are automatically entered onto an attendees calendar. To check/change whether Outlook automatically accepts meeting requests, go to Calendar Options. Click the Resource Scheduling button on the right in the middle section.

    

14. Place a check in the boxes of your choice. Click OK to accept changes and close the boxes.