Designed for Higher Education. The Alumni Relations department requested an Outlook training to familiarize their teams with Outlook best practices that could immediately be applied to their roles. This training is designed to suit their specific requests.
I designed and facilitated this training in a classroom setting.
3. Learning Objectives
At the completion of the class you will be able to:
• Access Outlook
• Identify how to navigate between email to calendar tabs
• Check location and contact’s availability
• Set a calendar appointment (Including WebEx details)
• Alter an appointment
• Send an appointment invitation
• Track meeting invitation responses
• Locate and open a group calendar
• Create a new calendar
• Share calendar
11. Demonstration & Activity
• Access your Outlook
calendar
• Check a classmate’s
availability
• Create a 1 hour
appointment
• Invite the person
next to you to the
appointment
16. Demonstration & Activity
• Open the
appointment you
created
• Change Date/Time
to one day/one hour
later
• Send Updates to All
• Add Instructor to
Invitation; do not
send update to all
24. Demonstration & Activity
• Search for a
calendar
• Create a new
calendar
• Toggle between
personal and newly
created calendar
• Share your calendar
with a classmate
25. Highlights & Best
Practices
• All appointments are in one
shared calendar
• Everyone is informed of team
members’ appointments
• Check someone’s availability
before scheduling a meeting
• Track meeting RSVPs
• Never respond with ‘Do not
send a response’
Make sure Outlook is installed on computers
Give time for each to log in to their Outlook email accounts
Demonstrate how to navigate between email and calendar.
Point out the top Ribbon
When you want to create a new appointment in Outlook, navigate to the Calendar section.
[CLICK] Click new appointment, or double-click in an empty white space under the date and time slot you wish to schedule for and double-click.
An appointment box will open.
However, as a best practice, you should find out when people are all free to meet according to their calendars.
To do that, toggle from Appointment to Scheduling Assistant and we’ll discuss how to use that tool.
[CLICK] In Outlook, you can find out when people are free to meet or not (if they are actively using Outlook, of course!)
The Scheduling Assistant allows you to select all the people you wish to invite to a meeting at once and visually see when they are free.
[CLICK] The blue Vertical line in the calendar is moveable. Notice that as you move it, the dates/times on the lower left will update.
[CLICK] The right-hand column will indicate any scheduling conflicts that exist. It will also so you which times are free for all parties selected in the invitation.
Find a free time for each person and toggle back to Appointment in the ribbon. The screen will revert to your open appointment box for you to fill out the meeting details.
To fill out the meeting details, you can either start typing someone’s name in the TO section or use the address book to location them.
The address book is categorized by last name first. Once you located someone’s name, doubleclick them to add them to your invitation list.
If you prefer to type in their names, be sure to check the Check Names button so the system can attach an email address to their name.
You can also customize the response option, allowing them to propose a new time to meet.
After you have verified all the meeting information is correct, select Send on the left.
Your email will now be sent.
Set up your meeting in Webex using the Quick Scheduler.
Download the WEbEx detailed information as a placeholder on your own calendar.
Copy the message body details. You’ll need to paste them into a fresh Outlook invitation.
Paste the WebEx details into a fresh New Appointment. Address your invitation , select send.
You may end up with two adjacent meetings on your calendar. The second is the one with the meeting details.
*If you are working on a mac, it’s easier. After you download the WEbEx details just select Invite and invite your recipients. Done!
Sometimes you may need to add or remove an invitee. You may need to alter the date or time. You may need to add information in the body of the email.
Whatever it is, Outlook will prompt you to send an update.
You’ll have two options: to send to only those recipients you added or removed if that was the action you took
Or
To send an update to all (good to do if you changed a date or time or updated the message body only)
Best practice: Don’t choose ‘Send update to all’ if you added/removed someone from the meeting
You can see a list of those who have responded to your meeting invitation and those who haven’t. This allows you to wrangle them individually if necessary.
Best Practice: When someone responds with “Do Not Send a Response’ their response is not tracked! This makes it difficult for others who are managing meetings to get a proper headcount of who is coming and who is not.
When you received a meeting invitation, you should always click the drop down under each response and select either:
Edit the Response Before Sending (to add a personal note of acceptance or regret)
Send the Response Now
This ensures that the organizer will know whether you plan to attend or not.
If you select ‘Do Not Send a Response’ it is as if you have ignored the invitation.
Here is what it looks like when you are viewing two separate calendars.
Notice that the colors on the lefthand calendar section matches the calendar header at the top of each calendar. This is how you can differentiate between the two.
When you select the boxes, the calendar will appear. When the box is deselected, the calendar will not show.
Always make sure you are adding appointments in the proper calendar before you begin.
You may need to locate a group calendar.
Outlook Ribbon > Open Calendar >Search for the calendar name > Doubleclick name once located > OK
You may need to create a new calendar to manage team appointments or time-off:
Outlook Ribbon > Open Calendar. Select drop-down arrow > Create New Blank Calendar
Decide where you which to house that calendar. In the Calendar section is suggested.
Give it a clear naming convention, then select OK.
There is no limit to the amount of calendars you may view at one time. Each will be color coded.
You can rename them to keep them organized and you can also delete them.
Demo this.
You may need to share a team calendar or your personal calendar with someone.
To do this:
Outlook ribbon > Share
Decide which details would be appropriate to share with this individual you wish to view your calendar:
Availability Only – Busy, Tentative, Working Elsewhere, OOO
Limited Details – Subject Line and availability
Full Details – Availability, Subject Line, Notes, etc.
