Tip of the week # 412
11 January 2014


Respond to an e-mail message with a meeting request (Outlook 2003-2010)

If you receive an e-mail message that you want to have a meeting about, you can reply to the message with a meeting request, without opening your Calendar. When you respond to a message using Outlook 2010's new Meeting Reply functionality, a meeting request is created with everyone who was on the To line in the original message invited as Required Attendees, and everyone on the Cc line invited as Optional Attendees.

Here's how (in Outlook 2010):

  1. Open the message, as normal.
  2. On the Message tab, in the Respond group, click Meeting. (Or press CTRL + ALT + R.)
  3. Enter the location and start and end times, as normal. (Remember? You can use plain English to choose a date or time, such as Next Thursday, 5PM. See tip_350.php if you missed it.)
  4. Click on the Scheduling button and add or remove attendees by (un)ticking the check box of the person you do not wish to invite.
  5. Add attachments, if necessary.
  6. Click on the Send button.

The original e-mail message is included in the body of the meeting request.

Not using Outlook 2010 as yet? Fear not. simply drag the message to the Calendar folder, which is also a great way to set follow-up reminders and keep your inbox nice and tidy. See tip_103.html for further details.