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The Scheduling Assistant

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Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Microsoft Exchange, Live@edu

You can complete most tasks required to set up a meeting by using the Scheduling Assistant.

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How do I use the Scheduling Assistant?

  1. Create a new appointment or meeting request, and then click the Scheduling Assistant tab.

  2. Under Select Attendees, type the names or aliases of the people you want to attend your meeting. The names you enter will be automatically resolved, if possible. If a unique match can't be found for a name, the name is underlined. Right-click the name to view a list of possible matches. Click the name that matches to add it to the list of attendees. You can also click Select Attendees to open the Address Book window.

  3. To set an attendee as Required required, Optional optional, or Resource resource, click the icon next to the name. Every time you click the icon, it changes to the next setting. The meeting organiser meeting organizer can't be changed.

  4. The availability chart automatically displays all your attendees' schedules on the day of your meeting with the time of your meeting highlighted. A blue bar in the schedule window next to a name means that person is busy at that time.

  5. To change the meeting date, click the Start or End box, and then select a new meeting date.

  6. To move the meeting time, click the centre of the highlighted bar that represents the meeting time, and then drag the meeting to a different time.

  7. After you verify availability, click the Appointment tab to finish filling out your meeting request.

What else do I need to know?

  • Next to the availability chart is a summary of attendee availability. The summary offers a list of possible meeting times in addition to how many of the selected attendees and resources are available at each time. To see the details of a specific time, click the time in the Suggested Times list. To see possible times on other days, click the calendar in the Suggested Times pane. Clicking a time in the Suggested Times list automatically changes the meeting to that time.

  • You can use the Scheduling Assistant toolbar to change the date, start time and end time of the meeting. You can use the Suggested Times window to change the date and duration of your meeting and to select a suggested time.

  • The Scheduling Assistant has an option on its toolbar to show only working hours. If this is selected and one or more attendees don't have working hours that overlap with the other attendees, the Scheduling Assistant will show it couldn't find any available times for the meeting. This frequently happens for meetings that include attendees in multiple time zones. You can turn off Show only working hours to see possible meeting times.

What if I want to know more?