How-To: Create a Calendar Scheduling Group in Outlook

Problem:

You regularly plan meetings with the same group of people who work for Student Housing (email is provided via Housing IT).  Each time you plan an appointment time in Outlook, you find that you have to enter each person one-by-one and would like an easier way to do this repetative task.

Important Notes:

If the meetings always occur in one of Housing's conference rooms and the conference room calendar is hosted in the Public Folders, you can include the conference room calendar as part of the Group Schedule to make finding an available time easier. 

You must keep in mind that only calendars that are hosted on Housing's Exchange server are viewable (provided it is shared for read access.) 

 

Resolution:

Microsoft Outlook provides a feature called Group Schedule that allows you to name a group that can be reused when creating appointments. The group allows you to include People and Public calendar resources.

 

1. Open Microsoft Outlook and Click on your Calendar. You will see a view similar to the picture below:
   
   
   
2. Locate and click the View Group Schedule button (see picture below) OR select from the menu Actions, View Group Schedules...
   
   
   
3. A "Group Schedules" windows opens.  To create a new group, select New...
   
   
    
4. The "Create New Group Schedule" window opens.  Enter a meaningful name for this new Meeting Group you are creating.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. The new Group Scheduling windows opens (see below).  Click on the "Add Others" drop down button to add members.
   
   
   
6.  The Add Others button has two options available.  The first is "Add from Address Book" and allows you to add People to this group.  The second is "Add Public Folders" and allows you to add public calendars; such as conference rooms. Select the appropriate type.  In the example in the image above, "Add Public Folders" was selected and the user navigated to the Housing Conference Rooms folder.
   
   
   
7. Each time you add a new member, it will be reflected in the Group Scheduling item window (see below).  Assuming the user publicly shares view rights to their calendar, you will be able to see non-private item descriptions.  Private meeting items will appear, but the Title does not appear (see below).
   
   
   
   
8. Once you are done, click on Save and Close to save your Group Scheduling Item.  Now, when you want to schedule a meeting with this specific group membership in the future, you simply need to revisit the "View Group Schedules..." (Task 1 & 2 above) and click on the "Make Meeting" dropdown button and select "New Appointment..." (see below.)