10 Minute Guide to Outlook 97 - 13 - Planning a Meeting In this lesson, you learn to schedule a meeting, enter attendees for a planned meeting, set the meeting date and time, and invite others to the meeting. Scheduling a Meeting Outlook provides a method by which you can plan the time and date of a meeting, identify the subject and location of the meeting, and invite others to attend the meeting. You use the Calendar folder to plan and schedule meetings. Plain English: Meeting In Outlook, a meeting is an appointment to which you invite people and resources. Attendees The people who will be attending your meeting. Resources Any equipment you use in your meeting, such as a computer, slide projector, or even the room itself. To plan a meeting, follow these steps: 1. Click the icon for the Calendar folder, and then choose Calendar, Plan a Meeting. The Plan a Meeting dialog box appears (see Figure 13.1). 2. To enter the names of the attendees, click in the All Attendees list where it says Type Attendee Name Here. Enter the name and press Enter. Continue adding new names as necessary. Figure 13.1 Choose the date and time of your meeting as well as the attendees. Timesaver Tip: Invite More People You can click the Invite Others button to choose names from your Personal Address Book or the Outlook Address Book. 3. To set a date for the meeting, open the leftmost Meeting Start Time drop-down list and select the date from the calendar, or just type the date in the text box. The ending date (in the Meeting End Time drop-down list) automati-cally shows the same date you set in the Meeting Start Time date box; you can change the End Time date if you want. 4. To set a start time for the meeting, do one of the following: Open the rightmost Meeting Start Time drop-down list and select the time. Type a time in the text box. Drag the green bar in the time block pane of the dialog box to set the start time. 5. To set an end time for the meeting, do one of the following: Open the rightmost Meeting End Time drop-down list and select the end time. Type a time in the text box. Drag the red bar in the time block pane of the dialog box to change the ending time of the meeting. 6. When you finish planning the meeting, click the Make Meeting button. The Meeting window appears (see Figure 13.2), from which you can refine the meeting details, as described in the next section. Working Out Meeting Details After you plan a meeting, Outlook enables you to send invitations, identify the subject of the meeting, and specify the meeting's location. You enter these details in the Meeting dialog box. When you schedule a meeting (as described in the previous section) you finish by clicking the Make Meeting button in the Plan a Meeting dialog box. When you do that, Outlook displays the Meeting dialog box with the Appointment tab in front (see Figure 13.2). Follow these steps to specify meeting details for a meeting you've already scheduled. 1. If you did not list the attendees in the Plan a Meeting dialog box, either click in the To text box and enter the names of the people you want to attend the meeting, or click the To button to select the attendees from an address book. 2. In the Subject text box, enter a subject for the meeting. 3. In the Location text box, enter a location for the meeting. Figure 13.2 Specify the details about the meeting in the Appointment tab of the Meeting dialog box. 4. (Optional) You can change the starting and ending dates and/or times in the Appointment tab. You can also choose the Meeting Planner tab to view the meeting in a format similar to that of the Plan a Meeting dialog box; make any changes to attendees, time, dates, and so on in the Meeting Planner tab. 5. (Optional) Select the Reminder check box and enter a time for Outlook to sound an alarm to remind you of the meeting. 6. (Optional) Enter any special text you want to send the attendees in the text box provided. 7. When you're ready to send the invitations to the meeting, click the Send button. Close the Meeting window by choosing File, Close. When you send an invitation, you're sending an e-mail that requests the presence of the recipient at the meeting. The recipient can reply to your message, save your message, and forward or delete the message, just as he can with any other e-mail message. If you want the recipient to reply, choose Appointment, Request Responses, and the recipients will be prompted to reply to your invitation. Panic Button: An Invitation Mistake To cancel an invitation after you've sent it, choose Appointment, Cancel Invitation. Inviting Others to the Meeting If you need to add names to your attendees list--either while you're planning the meeting or at some later date--you can use your personal address book and/or the Outlook address book to find the names of the people you want to invite. Additionally, you can choose whether to make the meeting required or optional for each person you invite. To invite others to the meeting, follow these steps: 1. In either the Plan a Meeting dialog box or the Meeting Planner tab of the Meeting dialog box, click the Invite Others button. The Select Attendees and Resources dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 13.3. 2. Open the Show Names from The drop-down list and choose either Personal Address Book or Outlook Address Book. 3. To add a new name to a list, click the New button, and then enter the name, e-mail address, phone numbers, and other pertinent information about the name you're adding to the list. 4. Select any name in the list on the left side of the dialog box and click the Required or Optional button to specify attendance requirements. 5. Click OK to close the dialog box and add any attendees to your list. Figure 13.3 Use the address books to specify attendees to your meeting. Timesaver Tip: Reserve Resources Click the New button to add resources to the list; then notify the person who is in charge of those resources of your meeting. Editing a Meeting You can edit the details about a meeting, invite additional people, or change the date and time of the meeting at any time by opening the Meeting dialog box. To open the Meeting dialog box and edit the meeting, follow these steps: 1. In the Calendar folder, choose the meeting date in the monthly calendar pane. The date appears in the schedule pane, and the meeting is blocked out for the time period you specified, as shown in Figure 13.4. 2. Double-click the meeting block to display the Meeting dialog box. You can edit anything in the Appointment or Meeting Planner tabs. Figure 13.4 Select the meeting you want to edit from within the Calendar. Timesaver Tip: Any Responses? Choose the Show Attendee Status option in the Meeting Planner tab of the Meeting dialog box to see if the people you invited to the meeting have responded to your invitation. 3. When you're done, choose File, Close to close the Meeting dialog box. If you've made changes to the meet-ing specifics, you should also send a message to your attendees to notify them of the change. In this lesson, you learned to schedule a meeting, enter attendees for a planned meeting, set the meeting time, and invite others to the meeting. In the next lesson, you'll learn to create a contacts list.

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