Scheduling Departmental Rooms in Outlook

The Scheduling Assistant and Room Finder are tools used within Outlook to view the availability of and schedule departmental rooms under the College of Engineering. The following steps will walk through first using Scheduling Assistant, then explain using Room Finder, and lastly sending the meeting invitation to finalize booking the room(s).

Using Scheduling Assistant

1. Within the Outlook inbox, select New Items > Meeting

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   1. Alternatively, within the Outlook calendar, click on the New Meeting icon in the task bar

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2. Click on the Scheduling Assistant icon in the task bar

3. Click on Add Rooms… at the bottom left hand corner of the window

   1. Search for the desired room name in the search bar or browse through the list of rooms

   2. Select the room(s) e.g. Room - AIEN 111; Room - AIEN 210B and then click OK

Using Room Finder

Now that the desired room(s) have been added, you may now select the combination of the most optimal room location and time. The Room Finder tab will be located on the right side of the window.

Click and drag the blue slider on the calendar’s various time slots to view the available rooms out of your added rooms within the desired time frame. The white highlighted color shows good availability regarding attendees' dates/times, the light blue highlighted color shows fair availability, and the dark blue highlighted color shows poor availability. You will also be able to view the other events where the rooms may be scheduled. Alternatively, view the Suggested times on the right hand side of the Room Finder tab to select the best time for the available rooms.

Select the room by clicking on the room (Ctrl + Click for multiple rooms) underneath Choose an available room or check the box next to the room name underneath All Attendees on the left hand side of the window.

Send the meeting invitation

After navigating back to the Appointment tab of the meeting invitation, you should see the selected room(s) as attendees in the To… field. You may add other attendees in that field, such as the other persons or participants that will be invited to the meeting. Next, edit the Subject field with a short description of the meeting or event. The location should match the room(s) selections. Verify that the start and end times are correct, then click on Send to create the appointment and book the room.