Schedule a Meeting in Exchange Online with Scheduling Poll


Introduction

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

Scheduling Poll is a built-in tool in Outlook that allows meeting organizers to offer date and time options to attendees so that they can vote on their preferred meeting times. It provides attendees with multiple options for scheduling in a way that eliminates emailing back and forth, and is available in both the Outlook for Desktop and Outlook Web App (OWA).

NOTE: There are several different versions of both the Outlook Web App and the Outlook Desktop App. The functionality of the Scheduling poll tool is not consistent across versions. If you would like to use Scheduling poll, but it does not function as laid out in this guide, please contact your IT personnel or 4Help for assistance.

Contents

Scheduling through the Outlook Web App (OWA)

Scheduling through the Outlook Desktop App (Windows)

To Propose Additional Times

To View, Cancel or Edit a Scheduling Poll

Instructions

Scheduling through the Outlook Web App (OWA)

Through Calendar (Recommended)

  1. Log into the Outlook Web App.
  2. Click on the Calendar icon in the lefthand menu.
    Outlook Web App lefthand menu; Calendar icon highlighted
  1. Click on the New event icon.
    Calendar Web app; 'New event' icon highlighted
  1. A new event email will open. Add your required (and/or optional) attendees, and a title for the email. Your attendees' availability will show up in the date/time selector under Suggested times if they use a Virginia Tech Outlook calendar. There are multiple options in this window for creating meetings and polls. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are only covering the 'Scheduling poll' option, starting with the next step.
    Suggested meeting times shown in event email
  1. Once all of your attendees are added, click on the Scheduling poll icon.
    Event toolbar; 'Scheduling poll' highlighted
  1. Choose the options for Time zone, Duration, Date, and whether to limit poll choices to Meeting Hours (normal workday hours) only.
    Schedule Poll time/date/duration boxes
  1. The next two steps are iterated through until you have sufficient meeting times for your colleagues to choose from:
     
    1. Select a date.

    1. Select one or more times on that date that you would like to include on the Scheduling 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 purple (unknown). You can mouse over an icon to see their name.
    Scheduling Poll timeslot picker window
  1. When you are satisfied with the date/time combinations, click the Next button.
    Schedule poll window; different time options, 'next' button shown
  1. Configure location information and any additional poll settings, then click Create poll.
    Schedule Poll additional configuration window; 'Create poll' highlighted
  1. Schedule poll will attach the poll to your email. Review your email, and when you are satisfied, click Send.
    Schedule Poll email 'Send' button
  1. 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.

Through Email **NOTE**: You must have your browser's pop-up blocker turned off for this section of the tutorial to work - How to Disable Pop-up Blocker Guide

  1. Log into the Outlook Web App.
  2. Open the New Email icon's dropdown menu, and select Event.
    New email pop-out window; 'Event' highlighted
  1. A new event email will open. Add your required (and/or optional) attendees, and a title for the email. Your attendees' availability will show up in the date/time selector under Suggested times if they use a Virginia Tech Outlook calendar. There are multiple options in this window for creating meetings and polls. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are only covering the 'Scheduling poll' option, starting with the next step.
    Suggested meeting times shown in event email
  1. Once all of your attendees are added, click on the Scheduling poll icon.
    Event toolbar; 'Scheduling poll' highlighted
  2. Choose the options for Time zone, Duration, Date, and whether to limit poll choices to Meeting Hours (normal workday hours) only.
    Schedule Poll time/date/duration boxes
  1. The next two steps are iterated through until you have sufficient meeting times for your colleagues to choose from:
       
    1. Select a date.
      2.  
    2. Select one or more times on that date that you would like to include on the Scheduling 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 purple (unknown). You can mouse over an icon to see their name.
      Scheduling Poll timeslot picker window
  2. When you are satisfied with the date/time combinations, click the Next button.
    Scheduling poll window; next button
  3. Configure location information and any additional poll settings, then click Create poll.
    Schedule Poll additional configuration window; 'Create poll' highlighted
  4. Schedule poll will attach the poll to your email. Review your email, and when you are satisfied, click Send.
    Schedule Poll email 'Send' button
  5. 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.

Scheduling through the Outlook Desktop App (Windows)

Through a Calendar Event (Recommended)

  1. Open the Outlook Desktop App on your computer.
  2. Click on the Calendar icon.
    Outlook Desktop app lefthand menu; Calendar icon highlighted
  3. Click on New Meeting.
    outlook desktop app; calendar toolbar; 'New Meeting' button highlighted
  4. Fill out the necessary information for the meeting. Your required and optional attendees' availability will show up in the date/time selector if they use a Virginia Tech Outlook calendar.
    new event window; required information sections highlighted
  5. After all of your attendees are added, click on the New Scheduling Poll icon.
    'New Scheduling Poll' icon
  6. Choose the options for Time zone, Duration, Date, and whether to limit poll choices to Meeting Hours (normal workday hours) only.
    Scheduling Poll Timezone duration date picker
  7. The next two steps are iterated through until you have sufficient meeting times for your colleagues to choose from:
       
    1. Select a date.
      2.  
    2. Select one or more times on that date that you would like to include on the Scheduling 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 purple (unknown). You can mouse over an icon to see their name.
      Scheduling Poll timeslot picker window
  8. When you are satisfied with the date/time combinations, click the Next button.
    Scheduling Poll window; next button
  9. Configure location information and any additional poll settings, then click Create poll.
    Scheduling poll window; 'Create poll' button highlighted
  10. In the email that pops up, review the information.
  11. When you are satisfied, click Send.
    Scheduling poll email: 'Send' button highlighted
  12. Discard the event (the first window) that you originally used to create the Scheduling poll as the Schedule poll function will schedule it for you according to your chosen options.
    discard event window
  1. 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 https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard
      2. Click on a poll to access its details.
      3. Click on Propose another time.

To View, Cancel or Edit a Scheduling Poll

      1. Log into FindTime at https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
      2. On the Scheduling poll dashboard, find the poll that you wish to view, edit or delete. Here you can see all the details of your active polls, including how others have voted. From here, you can also cast your own vote, and manually schedule a meeting based off others' input.

      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.