Introduction

This article describes how to use Microsoft's FindTime to schedule a meeting with people across boundaries such as companies, email environments, or time zones.

Microsoft's FindTime is an add-in to Exchange Online that allows users to schedule a meeting with people across boundaries such as companies, email environments, or time zones. It provides attendees with multiple options for scheduling in a way that eliminates emailing back and forth. It is available in both the Outlook for Desktop and Outlook Web App (OWA).

Contents

From an Email (Recommended)

From a Calendar Event

To Propose Additional Times

To Cancel or Edit a FindTime Poll

Instructions

From an Email (Recommended)

1. Log into OWA or Outlook Desktop
2. Click on the Email icon
3. Fill out the necessary information for the email. Your required and optional attendees' availability will show up in the date/time selector if they use VT Exchange Online.
4. In OWA, click on Scheduling Poll

   

5. In Outlook, click on New Meeting Poll

   

6. Choose the options for the duration, time zone, and if to limit choices to Work Hours

   

7. The next two steps are iterated through until you have sufficient options for your colleagues to choose from
   
   1. Select a date

      

   2. Select one or more times on that date that you would like to include on the FindTime poll. If a person's Exchange Online calendar information is available, you will see their icon as either green (available) or red (unavailable). If a person's Exchange Online calendar is not available, you will see their icon as grey. You can mouse over an icon to see their name.

      

8. When you are satisfied with the date/time combinations, click the Next button

   

9. Select the final configuration information.

   

10. Click Add to email

    

11. In the email that pops up, review the information
12. When you are satisfied, click Send

    

13. Discard the event that you originally used to create the FindTime poll as FindTime will schedule it for you according to your chosen options
14. The time slots you have selected will show up on your calendar. If you have configured your poll to Hold selected times on my calendar, you will still see it on your calendar with the [Hold] prefix added to the title. If this option is off, the title will have [Draft] appended to it, and you will still be considered available for that time slot to others

From a Calendar Event

1. Log into OWA or Outlook Desktop
2. Click on the Calendar icon

   

3. Click on New Event (New Meeting in Outlook for Desktop)

   

4. Fill out the necessary information for the event. Your required and optional attendees' availability will show up in the date/time selector if they use VT Exchange Online

   

5. In OWA, click on Scheduling Poll

   

6. In Outlook, click on New Meeting Poll

   

7. Choose the options for the duration, time zone, and if to limit choices to Work Hours

   

8. The next two steps are iterated through until you have sufficient options for your colleagues to choose from
   
   1. Select a date

      

   2. Select one or more times on that date that you would like to include on the FindTime poll. If a person's Exchange Online calendar information is available, you will see their icon as either green (available) or red (unavailable). If a person's Exchange Online calendar is not available, you will see their icon as grey. You can mouse over an icon to see their name.

      

9. When you are satisfied with the date/time combinations, click the Next button

   

10. Select the final configuration information.

    

11. Click Add to email

    

12. In the email that pops up, review the information
13. When you are satisfied, click Send

    

14. Discard the event that you originally used to create the FindTime poll as FindTime will schedule it for you according to your chosen options
15. The time slots you have selected will show up on your calendar. If you have configured your poll to Hold selected times on my calendar, you will still see it on your calendar with the [Hold] prefix added to the title. If this option is off, the title will have [Draft] appended to it, and you will still be considered available for that time slot to others

To Propose Additional Times

1. Log into FindTime at findtime.microsoft.com
2. Click on your poll to access details
3. Click on Propose another time

   

To Cancel or Edit a FindTime Poll

1. Browse to https://findtime.microsoft.com and log in with your VT account
2. On the FindTime Dashboard, find the poll that you had created

   

3. To cancel the poll
   
   1. Click Cancel Poll to cancel the poll
   2. Click Yes
4. To edit the poll
   
   1. Click Edit Poll and make any edits to the name, location, or duration
   2. Click Save

Be aware, sometimes this will not delete the [Draft] item from your calendar. You will have to manually delete the item.

 

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