How to Use Scheduling Polls in Microsoft Outlook

[@HeatherMajors]

As of the time this video was published, Scheduling Polls is rolling out to the Outlook Web (OWA) app only. It will start appearing in the desktop app sometime first quarter 2023 according to Microsoft.

[@YouTubeTeacherRemote]

Just want to say your channel is EVERYTHING!!!! much needed tutorials for students as I work in colleges and as an SME and the majority of my health IT students are Microsoft illiterate. Will be sharing this indeed. These skills assist them in going jobs that can become careers. Appreciate u!!

[@HeatherMajors]

Thank you. I know what you mean as I come across the same scenario you describe at my work.

[@ekosumaryanto3552]

This is super informative and useful, thank you very much!

[@HeatherMajors]

Your welcome.

[@user-mz1el4ir9h]

Thank you, Heather. This was a great video.

[@HeatherMajors]

You are welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@ticonderogamedium]

Bless, I have been trying to find a simple way to do this without a third party. Outlook does so much it works against itself.

[@HeatherMajors]

Well it also does not help that until recently, there were things that only worked is desktop not web and vice versa. Some recent releases have made it so the two are becoming more similar making it easier to know what you have to work with.

[@robertlee3002]

Massively helpful and well put-together video, thank you!

[@HeatherMajors]

Robert, glad you enjoyed it!

[@LoanKim-ns8yy]

This tip in the tutorial is just what I need. Thanks a lot!

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi Loan Kim, glad the tip was useful. Next step, getting people to actually use it.

[@cjay233]

Thanks. I'm going to have to study this ALOT.

[@HeatherMajors]

You got this!

[@Sallyws19]

This was great Heather - I'm a Microsoft trainer - MCT :) and need to teach this next week. You were very thorough and I'm now feeling reading to present this. Thank you!

[@HeatherMajors]

Sally, thank you for the amazing feedback. I also teach Microsoft 365 for the company I work for but not an MCT. It makes me so happy to know that I could be of assistance to a fellow trainer. 😎

[@Sallyws19]

Quick question, do you see any advantage to scheduling the polls through the Outlook calendar versus creating emails?

[@HeatherMajors]

@@Sallyws19 Yes I think it is a big advantage especially when you are dealing with more than 2 people. Here is how it usually goes. I send an email to say 4 people and asking what day/time should we have meeting X. I will even suggest my or my bosses availability. Then others agree but someone suggests a different time. Then we have all the back and forth of why X or Y time does not work. By the time we figure it all out 20 emails have been generated. With Scheduling Polls I can suggest times and in that interface see the free/busy info for all people I added to the poll. It makes it much easier to track without all the email. I usually leave suggest times on for the participants because you know there is always that one person who does not keep their calendar up to date. When you get people used to using the Scheduling polls it ends up going much faster. As the primary trainer on my team, I already get way to much email and trying to schedule via email can lead to missed messages as well.

[@Sallyws19]

i’ll play with it in the Contoso environment. thanks much

[@Sallyws19]

yes i get all that thanks, but i meant any difference from STARTING the poll in a new email vs ina new meeting directly on calendar. i just tried , open a date on Calendar, add attendees, click Scheduling poll etc etc. but it sends poll out as an email also . That’s all I was asking I don’t see the benefit of beginning the poll in Calendar! 🤷‍♀️

[@yusufayman2]

It has been incredibly helpful and informative in explaining the steps Thanks Heathar

[@HeatherMajors]

You are welcome, glad it could be helpful. That is the goal of this channel :)

[@e.g.3495]

Thank you so much for the video and the great explanation. I really appreciate it. What is really annoying is the fact that only predefined durations can be selected. If you want to plan a 3 hour or 15 minute meeting, you are unfortunately at a loss. I also prefer the FindTime view. Too bad that's being taken off.

[@HeatherMajors]

So E.G. one thing I might try is to go to your Outlook settings and use the Automatically end meeting early or begin meeting later. This allows you to add 5-15 minute buffer. Since it auto bumps the time maybe Scheduling polls will take it into account. Did not think of that until reading your comment but it is worth looking at.

[@mrajread]

Very helpful video - thank you!

[@HeatherMajors]

Glad you found it helpful. Happy New Year 😊

[@lo.leathercrafts]

Thanks for the video! It helped me a lot!

[@HeatherMajors]

You are very welcome. I hope you are having a wonderful day.

[@MitulGohil-sh4hj]

I love you. Thank you so much

[@HeatherMajors]

Glad you liked the video.

[@fouziaqazi9400]

This is great

[@HeatherMajors]

Thanks :)

[@MHJ778]

Great video! I have a quick question: Can an attendee see the responses of other attendees who have already voted? Thanks!

[@HeatherMajors]

Yes, they can see the other votes. Personally, I like this because if I am on the fence about a time I can see what others have voted for and maybe that helps me know which will fit the team best.

[@MHJ778]

@@HeatherMajors Thank you for the response. Appreciate it. Again, great video. You explained it really well. Please keep posting more videos. Subscribed.

[@user-un8oj6te3b]

Hi @HeatherMajors - is there a way to insert the voting preferences on behalf of an attendee. Example : a delegate cannot open the poll for some reason, and they have emailed me with their preferred choices. I would want to add their vote to the list as I was the organiser

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi I had to do some digging on this. As the poll organizer you cannot put in answers on behalf of others, but you can choose to manually schedule the meeting. A delegate can open the poll on behalf of their principal. However, there is a newer authentication function built in. I just ran through it and as the delegate I clicked on the poll, it says pick your attendee, do that. A page will come up asking for a code. It did not send automatically in my case so all I had to do was click resend code. As the delegate I could see that code email, entered the code back on the authentication screen, and then could vote on the poll on behalf of my principle.

[@AngelScott-fj7um]

Hi Heather, how can I find the Scheduling Poll dashboard? I see from your video it is set up like FindTime dashboard was. I am not able to access it.

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi Angel, When you send out a poll there is a card in the email message that says view poll and view all your polls. The view all will take you to the dashboard. So the tricky thing is as the creator you wont see that card until someone responded. To solve that I just go to my sent email and click on the view all polls from there.

[@AngelScott-fj7um]

Thanks, Heather.

[@VincentAmari]

How annoying that users with Office 365 Home don't get this option :-( especially as the Find Time addin use to work fine for us

[@HeatherMajors]

Why Microsoft does these things is a mystery, right.

[@CessTess]

Im having trouble with the time. It seems to only suggest starting the meeting at :15 or :45. Any suggestions?

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi, just knowing the time hacks you are seeing suggest to me that in the Outlook settings, at some point you selected start meetings late or end meetings early. That setting will automatically put a buffer on your meetings to build in a buffer between meetings. From Outlook on the web, go to the gear icon, click calendar, click events and invitation, see of shorten duration for all events is turned on. I know itis in the desktop too but don't know the settings path off the top of my head.

[@user-xl5ue3yp5v]

How to include people outside of your organization? How to include other times (i.e., after work hours)/

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi, to use with people outside the organization just type in the email for that person. So long as it is a valid email it will send. To include other hours toggle meeting hours off. This will open up the choices to any time of day and include weekends.

[@louisaweiler5340]

I want participants to block four entire dates. Is that possible? hours is not what I want, but days ... can anyone help?

[@HeatherMajors]

After playing with it a bit, it looks like Scheduling Polls is not going to do what you want. The tool only allows you to suggest a meeting up to 8 hours at a time and it cannot be reoccurring. Not knowing your actual goal, the best thing I can suggest is use Microsoft Forms to ask people when they would have 4 whole days to set aside for your event. Then you can plan accordingly.

[@scottmorwitz2753]

Great video and feature, but as usual, it is unavailable in the context that it needed most. As a delegate for a manager who does not manager their own calendar, but for whom the assistant does not send emails on behalf of. Alas, I'm still stuck in the former era and likely will be forever.

[@HeatherMajors]

If you are saying that you must have access to both the calendar and email and cannot have calendar only, that is possible. I just show both because the original question I got was from someone who needed both. Go to your the calendar that needs to be delegated in Outlook Online and click Share. Type the name of the delegate, click the drop down next to share button and click delegate. Now you have the calendar only.

[@radiahaathirahzahrah3721]

I cant find scheduling polls tools on my outlook

[@HeatherMajors]

If you do not see scheduling polls it is one of two things. Either it is not included in your license type or your company has not turned it on. For example, in my new job they don't allow it.

[@georgedomse]

Can you poll a recurring meeting (i.e. a Daily) this way?

[@HeatherMajors]

This feature does not have a reoccurring feature. What I have done is send out the poll and in the message let people know that they are choosing a best time for a reoccurring meeting. Then once I get an idea of a best time I schedule the meeting as needed. It is not perfect but it does reduce the back and forth significantly.

[@CalitranoN]

WHAT if I wanted to add times? I need everyone to attend but no consensus.?

[@HeatherMajors]

If you want to add more times you can either create a new poll or go to the poll settings and use the suggest another time feature. If no one agrees as the poll creator you can pick a time and use the Schedule meeting button.

[@CalitranoN]

@@HeatherMajors thanks! ya, my first time and I have the head of Tech and CEO picked different times and i only gave two choices... so now i'm kinda stuck...

[@HeatherMajors]

@@CalitranoN Oh, I hear what you are saying. These are two important people and it is not easy to get time on their calendars. I would almost suggest looking at their calendars and manually looking for times that show as open then send out a new poll with those times. Usually, I don't recommend doing the manual thing because it is a lot of work for you and their calendar may not be up to date. But with these two titles, they are most likely needing to have extra attention.

[@stesteq2838]

What if i make the poll with 2 options and i want to participate in both of the meetings? How can i send the scheduling only to the people who voted on the specific date?

[@HeatherMajors]

The scheduling poll is meant to be a lightweight tool and it is one meeting per poll. If you put multiple times in the poll you will get auto scheduled for one only.

[@paticolvin2821]

has this been rolled out to the desktop app yet?

[@HeatherMajors]

Just tested it and yes I see it in the desktop app.

[@ibrahimkoyuncu7623]

Is there any video about suggested replies?

[@HeatherMajors]

I don't have a video about suggested replies. That is a feature that seems to run itself, but what are you looking to learn about it?

[@ibrahimkoyuncu7623]

@@HeatherMajors I am wondering how to send a mail with suggested replies.many thanks for your prompt answer.

[@HeatherMajors]

@@ibrahimkoyuncu7623 Got you now. Whether or not you see suggested replies depends on the type of Microsoft License and admin settings your company has, or if it is a personal account. Features vary across license types. For example, I am a consultant working for company X, the embed me with Client A. The company has suggested replies turned on so they automatically show up. Client A does not so I cannot use suggested replies when using client email.

[@christielangston5650]

I'm having issues with people outside my organization having access to the polls I send. Is there a workaround here, or has anyone else run into this problem? TIA!

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi Christie, there can be a few factors going on and I suspect a lot of it has to do with how the admins on the receiving end have configured their settings. Without putting other people on blast in public, I can say generically that I work with an organization that has very high security settings on their information. I can send all the polls I want from my medium security mail box but the others cannot see them. If that is not the case, it could be Polls are turned off for the receiving company. And just to not assume, the Microsoft documentation says both of you have to be using Outlook. support.microsoft.com/en-au/topic/access-scheduling-poll-a8742e97-0b59-45c4-9359-23b582c64a27

[@yos8172]

This is brilliant, but there are a lot of EA's that are delegates for their managers. We don't seem to be able to receive the votes (not even via a rule) or to go into their inbox and vote on their behalf. I have tried to find a solution, but could not find it. Do you perhaps have one and be a superhero for millions of EA around the globe?

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi I did figure out a way for the delegate to see the Polls. Based on standard setting the delegate would see the poll, click on the vote button, then use a verification code that will be emailed to them. I see the poll but the vote button is blocked. If the person creating the poll turns off require attendee to authenticate, the delegate can vote on behalf of their manager. It is up to your company policy to decide if it is allowed to deselect the require authentication.

[@yos8172]

@@HeatherMajors Thank you very much Heather for testing with me. I honestly thought I would never receive a reply, so am very happily surprised! I am not sure I follow your instructions though, as I had the require authentication deselected. I picked up the invite from my managers inbox, but still could not vote on his behalf. I don't seem to know how to do this. I cannot click on his name and then vote. If I pick up his invite, it still does not allow me to vote for him. Some of my managers do not receive their invites as they go straight to me and it this case they are scheduling poll go directly into their inbox and not mine anymore. I tried to set u a rule to forward them straight to me, but have not find a way for that as well.

[@HeatherMajors]

Okay, I had to make an educated guess in my testing so let me ask you are you the managers delegate in outlook? By this I mean did they give you explicit permission to act on their behalf? Here is a video on how to set up delegation. My testing was done with the guess that you had already done this step. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qarPaaGcd9Snj80

[@yos8172]

@@HeatherMajors Hi Heather, yes I am a delegate for him. He does not see his invites, they all go directly to me to respond on his behalf.

[@HeatherMajors]

@@yos8172 Are you using the desktop version of Outlook or the Web version. The different versions actually handle features differently. I used the web version of Outlook by going to office.com and clicking the outlook icon to get started. If that does not work your admin may need to get involved because out of the box it does work on the web app. I know where I work some admin settings (especially security ones) will block some features.