You can use the Outlook Calendar to schedule meetings, appointments, and reminders. The Meeting Planner allows you to invite all attendees and to select a time for the meeting. When you go into the Meeting Planner, you can see graphically what everyone's schedule is, and plan your meeting accordingly.

How to:

Click the Calendar button:

Calendar Button

Click the New appointment button:

Fill in all the pertinent information just as you would an appointment.

Please note that anything you place in the notes section will be visible to everyone you have invited to the meeting. Marking the notes Private will only hide the notes from people who share your calendar who have not been invited to that meeting.

Then, to get to the Meeting Planner, click on the Invite Attendees button:

If you notice, the box you were in didn't change too much. What happened is now you have a To: field, just like when you create an email message. This works the same as email. Click the To button to bring up the address book, and pick everyone you want to attend the meeting. Click OK, and you will return to the Meeting Planner.

Next, click on the Attendee Availability tab of the Meeting Planner, which will bring up a screen similar to the one below:

Meeting Planner

The names listed on the left side of the screen are the ones you placed in the To: area. On the right is a graphical representation of the schedules of everyone you are inviting to your meeting. This makes it much easier to pick a day and time. You pick the date, start time, and end time from the area at the bottom of the screen:

Meeting Time

Once that is done, click the Send button:

Now what happens is everyone who you put in the To: area will receive an email regarding the meeting. They will have the options of Accepting, Declining, or Tentative. If they accept, the meeting will automatically be added into their Calendar. If they decline, you will receive an email making you aware of that. Also, if you double click the meeting you have created, click on the area label Show Attendee Availability, you can see what all the responses have been, and what their schedules are like if they decline.

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