How does a user book resources when it is set up?

How does a User Book a Resource in Outlook?

Question: In Outlook, you can invite another people to a meeting or appointment but how do you book a resource like a Meeting Room or Whiteboard at the same time?

Step 1
Start Outlook as a standard user with an existing mailbox. Click on the Calendar function and/or create a new meeting request using File, New, Meeting Request (Ctrl+Shift+Q).

Step 2
Click to the ôTo:ö button to select the participants from the Global Address Book (GAL). In the Resources field, add the Meeting Room of choice or the group of meeting rooms you created in the distribution list. Click OK.
Outlook uses the free/busy and the "this is designated resource" information that is stored in Exchange to auto-accept a meeting request. This information is not available when you are off-line so laptop users will not be able to book a resource unless they are connected to the LAN.

Step 3
Click on the Attendee Availability tab. You should see the people and resources you've selected marked with blue (busy), light blue (tentative appointments), purple (out of office), slashes (no data) or nothing (free for an appointment). If you selected multiple resources you need to pick the one that is available. If you used a Distribution List, expand it by clicking the + sign to the left of the entry. That will update the free/busy time for each individual room. You can either click the envelope next to the conference rooms you don't want to reserve and select Don't send meeting to this attendee, or you can click the AutoPick button and select All people and One Resource (which effectively does exactly what you would have done had you picked "Don't send meeting to this attendee").

Step 4
Click Send if the date and time for the resource is not already reserved. One of the most common ways resources can be configured is to decline invitations when the resource has been scheduled, to prevent double booking. Another setting can prevent you from setting up a reoccurring appointment. Those settings are solely up to the discretion of the administrator (normally) or any individual who has configured a resource in Outlook.

If you meet the non-conflict criteria in the paragraph above you should receive the notification shown below, unless you previously had checked ôPlease do not show me this dialog againö.

If you have configured auto-reply rules for the resource recipient you will also receive email indicating that the request was received by that resource.

If the date and time for the resource is already reserved, you will get a message like the following: