Overview
This guide explains how to set up an online personal booking page in Microsoft Bookings. You can send your booking page to people—including non-USC folks—to view your availability and book appointments with you. Additionally, Bookings automatically syncs with your Outlook calendar to keep your availability up to date.
Some possible uses for a personal booking page:
- You are an instructor or adviser, and want students to book appointments during your office hours
- You conduct trainings, and want faculty/staff to book appointments during set times of availability
Personal booking page vs shared booking pages
The personal booking page is designed for individual use. If you want to create a booking page for team use instead (for instance, your department offers informational sessions or orientations which can be scheduled with any staff member, not just yourself), see our guide on shared booking pages:
A note about other scheduling software
At Dornsife, Microsoft Bookings is our official recommendation for scheduling software. Bookings is part of the Microsoft suite, which is approved by the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (OCISO) for the storage of internal and confidential data.
Other popular scheduling applications, including Calendly and Acuity Scheduling, are not approved for purchasing or reimbursement as they are third-party cloud-based services and carry a fee, while Bookings is included in USC's Microsoft subscription.
Setting up a personal booking page
First, you'll need to navigate to your personal booking page:
- Go to https://outlook.office.com/bookings.
- If prompted to sign in, type your @usc.edu email address.
- Type your USC NetID and passphrase. Complete Duo authentication.
- Click Go to my booking page.
- If this is your first time using Bookings, Microsoft takes a moment to set up your personal booking page.
Setting up a booking option
You can set up multiple booking options on your page, and each one can be public or private:
- Public: Anyone who has the link to your booking page can book these appointments
- Private: People must have an appointment-specific link to book these appointments
After you create a booking option, you can easily change it from public to private or vice versa.
Create a booking option
Quick guide
- Click the + icon next to Public or Private.
- Fill out the fields. At a minimum, make sure to complete the following:
- Title
- Description
- Duration
- In the Location field, Teams meeting is selected by default. If you do not plan to use Teams to meet with the person, click the toggle to deselect Teams.
-
Append your personal booking page in your email signature is selected by default. This will add the booking page link to your Outlook email signature (deselect the checkbox if you do not want to use this option).
- The Schedule Customization field offers several options:
- Use my regular meeting hours: Click See regular meeting hours. Your Outlook settings open. Click Work hours and location and make sure that the days and times listed are accurate.
- Use custom availability hours: Set availability specifically for this booking. In addition to adjusting the days and times, you can set a date range for your availability.
- Click + Advanced options for some useful settings:
- Buffer time: This ensures bookings are not scheduled back to back with each other or with other events on your Outlook calendar.
- Lead time: This ensures that people cannot book with too little notice or too far in advance.
- Email reminders and follow-ups: Customize the timing and message for automatic email reminders or follow-ups. If you select these options, make sure to click Save Changes even if you leave them on the default.
- Click Save at the top.
- The booking option you created now displays on your personal booking page.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Click the + icon next to Public or Private.
- Fill out the fields. At a minimum, make sure to complete the following:
- Title
- Description
- Duration
- In the Location field, Teams meeting is selected by default. If you do not plan to use Teams to meet with the person, click the toggle to deselect Teams.
-
Append your personal booking page in your email signature is selected by default. This will add the booking page link to your Outlook email signature (deselect the checkbox if you do not want to use this option).
- The Schedule Customization field offers several options:
- Use my regular meeting hours: Click See regular meeting hours. Your Outlook settings open. Click Work hours and location and make sure that the days and times listed are accurate.
- Use custom availability hours: Set availability specifically for this booking. In addition to adjusting the days and times, you can set a date range for your availability.
- Click + Advanced options for some useful settings:
- Buffer time: This ensures bookings are not scheduled back to back with each other or with other events on your Outlook calendar.
- Lead time: This ensures that people cannot book with too little notice or too far in advance.
- Email reminders and follow-ups: Customize the timing and message for automatic email reminders or follow-ups. If you select these options, make sure to click Save Changes even if you leave them on the default.
- Click Save at the top.
- The booking option you created now displays on your personal booking page.
Edit a booking option
Once you've created a booking option, click the booking option at any point to edit its details.
You can also click the … button for more actions and select one of the following:
- Copy link
- Copy single-use link (private bookings only)
- Share
- Duplicate
- Make private/public
- Delete
Adding a Zoom meeting link to a booking
After someone books a meeting with you, you can generate and manually add a Zoom link to the meeting:
Quick guide
- When someone books a meeting with you, you receive a confirmation email and the booking is added as an Outlook calendar event.
- Open Outlook calendar. Double click the booking to open it.
- Follow the steps below that match your Outlook version.
Outlook for Windows
- The booking automatically opens in editing mode.
- Paste a Zoom meeting link in the Location field, or use the Zoom add-in to generate a Zoom meeting link.
- Click Send Update. The updated booking with the Zoom link is emailed to the other person.
Outlook for Mac
- Click Edit Event.
- Paste a Zoom meeting link in the Add a location field, or use the Zoom add-in to generate a Zoom meeting link.
- Click Send. The updated booking with the Zoom link is emailed to the other person.
Outlook 365 in the browser
- Click Edit.
- Paste a Zoom meeting link in the Search for a room or location field, or use the Zoom add-in to generate a Zoom meeting link.
- Click Send. The updated booking with the Zoom link is emailed to the other person.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- When someone books a meeting with you, you receive a confirmation email and the booking is added as an Outlook calendar event.
- Open Outlook calendar. Double click the booking to open it.
- Follow the steps below that match your Outlook version.
Outlook for Windows
- The booking automatically opens in editing mode.
- Paste a Zoom meeting link in the Location field, or use the Zoom add-in to generate a Zoom meeting link.
- Click Send Update. The updated booking with the Zoom link is emailed to the other person.
Outlook for Mac
- Click Edit Event.
- Paste a Zoom meeting link in the Add a location field, or use the Zoom add-in to generate a Zoom meeting link.
- Click Send. The updated booking with the Zoom link is emailed to the other person.
Outlook 365 in the browser
- Click Edit.
- Paste a Zoom meeting link in the Search for a room or location field, or use the Zoom add-in to generate a Zoom meeting link.
- Click Send. The updated booking with the Zoom link is emailed to the other person.
Publishing and sharing your booking page
Share your booking page link
Once you are ready for your booking page to be seen, click Publish. Then, click Share for options to copy your booking page link or share it via email.
Add your booking page link to your email signature
There are a few ways to add your booking page link to your email signature:
- Option one: Keep Append your personal booking page in your email signature selected when you are creating a booking option.
- Option two: On your booking page, click Share and select Email signature settings from the dropdown.
- Option three: If you don't like the default formatting and appearance of the booking page link, you can copy the link and manually add it to your email signature.
Hiding your booking page
If you no longer want your booking page to be visible, or you want to temporarily hide it while you make changes, click the … option to the left of Share. Then, select Turn off your bookings page from the dropdown.
