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Parkers Mailbox 
~~Parker Renaud, IT Manager, Colliers Keenan, Inc.

Advantages of Outlook on an Exchange Server

~~ Voting

There are certain Outlook features available to you only when you use Microsoft Exchange Server. In other words, if you use Outlook at home or on a peer-to-peer network, these features will not be available to you. 

• Message Recall:   Recall a message from recipients who haven’t read it yet, and, if you want, replace the recalled message with a new message.

• Voting:   Request and tally responses to a multiple-choice question you send in a message. Automatically consolidate voting notifications in the original message.

• Offline folders and offline Address Book:   When you work offline, synchronize your folders and Address Book at a remote location with folders on a Microsoft Exchange Server computer, so you always have the latest information.

• Delegate Access and folder permissions: Give another person delegate access permission to work in your Microsoft Outlook folders and to send messages on your behalf. Or assign a colleague permission to read, modify, or create items in your public and private folders on a Microsoft Exchange Server computer.

• Group scheduling: Schedule a meeting and reserve a location and equipment. See the free/busy times for meeting invitees and resources.

• Public folders: Collect, organize, and share files and Microsoft Outlook items with others on your team or across your organization. Participate in public, online discussions with others. Or share a contact or task list with a group.

• Organize Web pages in a public folder: Collect Web pages for a group to share, and keep track of how often pages are used, when they’re updated, who owns them, and more.

• Out of Office Assistant: Manage e-mail messages while you’re out of the office. Set up an automatic response to incoming messages that lets people know you are away.

• Web Access: Access your Outlook mailbox from any PC with an internet connection and Internet Explorer.

I have already discussed several of these features in earlier columns. This month I will talk about voting. There will be no pregnant chads or Palm Beach County jokes, just a discussion of voting, Outlook style.

Using Voting in Outlook

Voting in Outlook allows you to send an e-mail, ask the recipients to reply to one of several choices, and have Outlook tabulate the results for you. Why would you use this feature? You might use it if you were planning a large meeting at which you plan to provide lunch. You could give the attendees the choice of several different types of sandwiches. When they vote, by clicking a box in the e-mail you sent, Outlook automatically tabulates the votes, provides totals for each possible choice, and creates a list of who selected what. (Make sure you print a copy of the tracking report to take to the meeting so you will know who selected what.) You can also use this feature to select dates for meetings, choices of hotels, attendance at functions, etc.

How much time can this save you? That depends on how many people are involved in a particular meeting or event. If you need to find out how many of the 300 people you invite to the company picnic plan on attending, it will literally save you hours. If you are trying to decide on a place for lunch with three of your friends, it may be quick, but it will not save you much time.

How Does Voting Work?

You must create a message that contains voting buttons. To do this:

1. In a new mail message, click on the options icon.

2. In the Voting & Tracking Options section, check "Use voting buttons".

3. There are three sets of buttons built-in to the program: Approve, Reject;  Yes,  No;  and Yes, No, Maybe. You may either use one of these selections or create a new one by entering the name of each button separated by a semicolon, i.e. Ham; Turkey; Roast Beef.

4. Click “Have replies sent to:” and enter the user name of the person to receive the replies. Your name is the default but you can put someone else in chare of the replies if you want.

5. When you send the e-mail, Outlook puts an InfoBar in the message to draw attention to the voting buttons, however, you may want to explain this in your message if you have not sent this type of message to the recipients before. As you can see from the graphic below, the buttons for voting do not stand out in the message at all. It would be helpful if the buttons were yellow like the InfoBar.

6. Each response will show up in your inbox as a separate e-mail with the response listed as the subject of the message.
7. However, to check all the responses, open the e-mail you sent (in your sent items) and you will see two tabs on the e-mail: Message and Tracking.
8. Click on the Tracking button and you will see a tracking report with the total replies for each selection and a list of replies. If someone does not reply, that will be shown also.

When you print out this voting message you will have a list of responses, or lack of response, from everyone to whom you sent the e-mail, and the infobar tallies the results for you. If you are in charge of coordinating functions for an organization, or just want an easy way to keep track of responses to a query, this will save you much time and aggravation.

Parker Renaud is the one-man IT department at Colliers Keenan where he manages 90 PCs on 5 servers.