Plan Meetings with Scheduling Poll

Owned by Christine Sandella
Last updated: Dec 11, 2024
3 min read

Microsoft Outlook’s Scheduling Poll (formerly known as FindTime) is a convenient tool for organizing meetings by identifying a time that works best for everyone.

How It Works

  1. Propose Meeting Times

    • Suggest several potential meeting times directly within Outlook.

  2. Share the Poll

    • A poll link is generated, which you can share with your colleagues via email.

  3. Vote on Preferences

    • Participants vote on their preferred meeting times, helping to find a consensus quickly.

  4. Schedule the Meeting

    • Once the best time is determined, you can schedule the meeting directly through Outlook.

Access Scheduling Poll

You can access Scheduling Poll via Mail or Calendar.

  1. Start a new email or reply to an existing one. Add required attendees to the To field and optional attendees to the Cc field. Then, click Scheduling Poll in the Message tab.

    New Message Scheduling Poll.png

  2. Create a new meeting event or select an existing event to edit it. List required attendees in the Invite attendees field and click the optional button to add optional attendees. Select Scheduling poll in the Event tab.

    New event Scheduling Poll.png

     

Scheduling poll can be used in Outlook for Mac. You can access it through Mail.

  1. Create a new email or select an email to reply to. List required attendees for the meeting in the To field and optional attendees in the Cc field. Select Scheduling Poll from the compose toolbar**.

     

  2. Drag and drop Scheduling Poll into the toolbar.

**If the find time add-in was previously installed, scheduling poll will automatically appear on the toolbar. If not, then you must manually add it by customizing the toolbar when you're composing a new email message. 

In Mail, you can access Scheduling Poll as follows:

  1. Select Reply with Scheduling Poll on the Home tab when an email is open in the reading pane.

     

  2. Launch the compose pane by either creating a new message or hitting reply/forward for an existing message. List required recipients in the To field and optional recipients in the Cc field. Then, on the Message tab, select New Scheduling Poll.

     

  3. In Calendar, you can access Scheduling Poll by either launching the compose form to create a new meeting event or opening an existing event in the edit form. List required attendees in the Required field and optional attendees in the Optional field. Select New Scheduling Poll under the Meeting tab.

For more information on setting up a Scheduling Poll, visit the Microsoft Support Page.