Overview
Microsoft Scheduling Poll (formerly known as Microsoft FindTime) is an Outlook feature that lets you poll and schedule meeting times with anyone. You can email a poll with dates and times to your recipients, and they will receive a link where they can vote on their preferred meeting times.
You need access to Outlook to create a scheduling poll, but your recipients do not need to have an Outlook account or a USC account to view your poll and respond.
How a Scheduling Poll page appears to recipients
Once you email a Scheduling Poll, recipients receive a link in their email to a page where they can vote on their preferred meeting times.
Using Scheduling Poll in Outlook for Windows
Scheduling Poll lag in Outlook for Windows
If you find that Scheduling Poll is slow to load, consider switching to Outlook on the web when you want to use Scheduling Poll.
You will need the new version of Outlook for Windows to follow these steps. If your Outlook version does not look like the screenshots in the steps below, you might be using Classic Outlook, an older version. In this case, you can either update your Outlook version or try Scheduling Poll in Outlook on the web instead:
Quick guide
- Open Outlook.
- Click New to create a new message.
- In the To field, add recipients by email address. Fill in the Subject field.
- In the ribbon, click Scheduling Poll. If it is grayed out, make sure your cursor is in the message field, not the recipient or subject field.
- If you do not see this option, click the
icon to scroll right on the ribbon.
- Adjust the Time zone and Duration if needed. If Meeting hours is selected, Outlook will automatically retrieve everyone's availability between 9am–5pm.
- To select a date, use the Date field. Once you select a date, select one or multiple time slots under "Sort by." You can select additional dates and time slots. Once you finish selecting dates and time slots, click Next.
- Review the dates and time slots you selected, and click Create poll.
- You can optionally fill in a Location.
- Once you're done editing your email message, click Send.
- Recipients will receive an email containing a link to view and respond to your poll. To track their responses or edit the poll, go to https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Open Outlook.
- Click New to create a new message.
- In the To field, add recipients by email address. Fill in the Subject field.
- In the ribbon, click Scheduling Poll. If it is grayed out, make sure your cursor is in the message field, not the recipient or subject field.
- If you do not see this option, click the icon to scroll right on the ribbon.
- Adjust the Time zone and Duration if needed. If Meeting hours is selected, Outlook will automatically retrieve everyone's availability between 9am–5pm.
- To select a date, use the Date field. Once you select a date, select one or multiple time slots under "Sort by." You can select additional dates and time slots. Once you finish selecting dates and time slots, click Next.
- Review the dates and time slots you selected, and click Create poll.
- You can optionally fill in a Location.
- Once you're done editing your email message, click Send.
- Recipients will receive an email containing a link to view and respond to your poll. To track their responses or edit the poll, go to https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
Using Scheduling Poll in Outlook for Mac
You will need the new version of Outlook for Mac to follow these steps. If your Outlook version does not look like the screenshots in the steps below, you might be using Legacy Outlook, an outdated version. In this case, you can either update your Outlook version or try Outlook on the web instead:
Quick guide
- Open Outlook and click New Mail.
- In the To field, add recipients by email address. Fill in the Subject field.
- In the top toolbar, click the … button and select Scheduling Poll.
- Adjust the Time zone and Duration if needed. If Meeting hours is selected, Outlook will automatically retrieve everyone's availability between 9am–5pm.
- To select a date, use the Date field. Once you select a date, select one or multiple time slots under "Sort by." You can select additional dates and time slots. Once you finish selecting dates and time slots, click Next.
- Review the dates and time slots you selected, and click Create poll.
- You can optionally fill in a Location.
- Once you're done editing your email message, click Send.
- Recipients will receive an email containing a link to view and respond to your poll. To track their responses or edit the poll, go to https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Open Outlook and click New Mail.
- In the To field, add recipients by email address. Fill in the Subject field.
- In the top toolbar, click the … button and select Scheduling Poll.
- Adjust the Time zone and Duration if needed. If Meeting hours is selected, Outlook will automatically retrieve everyone's availability between 9am–5pm.
- To select a date, use the Date field. Once you select a date, select one or multiple time slots under "Sort by." You can select additional dates and time slots. Once you finish selecting dates and time slots, click Next.
- Review the dates and time slots you selected, and click Create poll.
- You can optionally fill in a Location.
- Once you're done editing your email message, click Send.
- Recipients will receive an email containing a link to view and respond to your poll. To track their responses or edit the poll, go to https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
Using Scheduling Poll in Outlook on the web
Quick guide
- Go to https://usc.edu/office365.
- If you are prompted for your credentials:
- The Shibboleth page appears. Sign in using your USC NetID and passphrase.
- The Duo page appears. Complete the authentication.
- Click New to create a new message.
- In the To field, add recipients by email address. Fill in the Subject field.
- In the ribbon, click Scheduling Poll. If it is grayed out, make sure your cursor is in the message field, not the recipient or subject field.
- If you do not see this option, click the icon to scroll right on the ribbon.
- Adjust the Time zone and Duration if needed. If Meeting hours is selected, Outlook will automatically retrieve everyone's availability between 9am–5pm.
- To select a date, use the Date field. Once you select a date, select one or multiple time slots under "Sort by." You can select additional dates and time slots. Once you finish selecting dates and time slots, click Next.
- Review the dates and time slots you selected, and click Create poll.
- You can optionally fill in a Location.
- Once you're done editing your email message, click Send.
- Recipients will receive an email containing a link to view and respond to your poll. To track their responses or edit the poll, go to https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Go to https://usc.edu/office365.
- If you are prompted for your credentials:
- The Shibboleth page appears. Sign in using your USC NetID and passphrase.
- The Duo page appears. Complete the authentication.
- Click New to create a new message.
- In the To field, add recipients by email address. Fill in the Subject field.
- In the ribbon, click Scheduling Poll. If it is grayed out, make sure your cursor is in the message field, not the recipient or subject field.
- If you do not see this option, click the icon to scroll right on the ribbon.
- Adjust the Time zone and Duration if needed. If Meeting hours is selected, Outlook will automatically retrieve everyone's availability between 9am–5pm.
- To select a date, use the Date field. Once you select a date, select one or multiple time slots under "Sort by." You can select additional dates and time slots. Once you finish selecting dates and time slots, click Next.
- Review the dates and time slots you selected, and click Create poll.
- You can optionally fill in a Location.
- Once you're done editing your email message, click Send.
- Recipients will receive an email containing a link to view and respond to your poll. To track their responses or edit the poll, go to https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard.
Viewing or editing a poll
You can view all of your polls at https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard. To view an individual poll, click its title:
On the page for the individual poll, you can see who has responded and how they voted, and make edits to the poll. This includes sending reminders, adding more date and time options for voting, and adding attendees.
Scheduling a meeting and adding a Zoom link
Once your recipients have all responded, you can create the Outlook calendar event by clicking Schedule meeting beside the best date and time.
Outlook on the web opens and creates a new calendar event, adding your attendees as invitees. To optionally add a Zoom meeting, click the Zoom add-in in the ribbon. Once you're ready, send the calendar event to your attendees.
If you selected the checkbox Schedule when attendees reach consensus when you were setting up the poll (under Manage poll settings), the Outlook calendar event is automatically created once everyone has responded to the poll. Outlook cannot add a Zoom meeting, so you will have to add it manually if needed:
Troubleshooting
Scheduling Poll icon is grayed out in the ribbon
The Scheduling Poll icon may appear grayed out and unselectable if your cursor isn't in the email message field but another field such as the recipients or subject line. Click in the email message field, and you should now be able to select Scheduling Poll.
Not loading or stuck on "No one is available" message
Scheduling Poll sometimes experiences long lags in Outlook for Windows. If you experience this, try using Scheduling Poll in Outlook on the web instead.
Add-in error message
If you are unable to add a Scheduling Poll to your Outlook message, you might be using an older version of Outlook. In this case, you can either update your Outlook version or try using Scheduling Poll in Outlook on the web instead. To update Outlook:
- Outlook for Windows: In the upper right, click the Try the new Outlook toggle. If you do not see this toggle, you can update Outlook through the Microsoft app store.
- Outlook for Mac: Click the Microsoft Outlook menu and click Legacy Outlook to deselect it. Click Switch to Outlook. Outlook will restart.
Contributors: Chris Huntley, Trish Kelly.