Using Microsoft FindTime with Outlook Calendar

Overview

Finding a meeting time that works for everyone involved is a challenge.  Microsoft has released a plug-in for Outlook called FindTime.  Microsoft's FindTime is a add-in for Microsoft Outlook that scans the calendar of everyone invited to the meeting and helps find the best time to meet through an easy-to-setup and use polling system that can help eliminate confusion and simplify meeting management.  It can replace portions of YouCanBookMe and completely eliminate Doodle Polls.

Setting it up and using Microsoft FindTime

  1. Open a web browser and navigate to https://findtime.microsoft.com (or click the link)
  2. Once on the FindTime webpage, click Install for Free


     
  3. A pop up box will appear asking for your permission to access your Outlook calendar and email data.  Check or uncheck the box to be alerted of updates to FindTime, then click I'm Ready!


     
  4. After clicking I'm Ready! you will be walked through signing in to Office 365 in the same way you are used to doing for other Office 365 services.
  5. The web page will change and quickly finish the install, then display this page when done confirming that it was installed and what product it was installed for (Outlook 2013, 2016, the Web or Mac)


     
  6. Next, close Outlook and re-open it.  This will complete the installation of Outlook add-in.
  7. Once Outlook has re-opened, start a NEW E-MAIL MESSAGE.
  8. Type in the people you would like to invite to your meeting, give the message a topic and click the new orange "New Meeting Poll" button in the button bar.


     
  9. Once you do that, the window will split and on the right you will see an option to set the meeting length, and a calendar of times that you and your team are available.  You can easily see who is available based on the green and red people in the time slot. 
  10. Next you will scroll down and select the times that match people's availability and fit the meeting time(s) you want to hold the meeting.  Note: If you are inviting someone from off-campus, their calendar will not be shown here.  You can still invite them to the times that you wish to hold the meeting and allow them to vote on when to have the meeting.


     
  11. You can see your selected times showing up green, and then you click NEXT.
  12. When you click NEXT, FindTime will ask you to fill in some details such as location, is the meeting online and so on.  If you click the Show Settings link, you will see the settings circled below.  These are ON by default, but you can change this.  This will automatically put a hold on all of the times in the calendar, send update notifications and then schedule the meeting automatically once a common time is chosen by default.  When you are done click Insert to Email. 


     
  13. FindTime will now insert the poll into your email.  You can fill in the details, hit SEND and wait for everyone to vote!


     
  14. Once your poll is sent, you will receive notifications when people vote and you can finalize the meeting by logging in FindTime at https://findtime.microsoft.com or clicking on the link that is included in the update notifications.

 

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