calendaring | Thomas' Work Space

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How to use the Scheduling Assistant in OWA

2011/08/31 plagwitz 10 comments

The scheduling assistant lets you find a common free time for all the (resource and human) participants of your meeting request.
The scheduling assistant shows you start/end meeting time and free/busy information.
The default shows only work hours:
You can show more than work hours (useful for some resources):
You may also be able to see the meeting subjects.
You can spot scheduling conflicts in advance, instead of sending a meeting request that will have to be denied.
For some resources, you can make a recurrent/repeating meeting request: . note that you will lose the begin/end markers:

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: calendaring, ms-exchange, ms-outlook, resource-mailboxes, resource-scheduling, scheduling assistant

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Calendaring: How to use the Global Address list/Address Book for LRC Resources in OWA

2011/08/31 plagwitz 1 comment

Open the GAL for Resources by clicking on “Resources”, like here :
Use (1) default filtering, (2) “LRC” (3) search, to see all resources, including (4) equipment:
use (1) room filtering, (2) “LRC” (3) search, to see only (4) resources that resemble “Rooms” (including “Offices” held):
after (1) searching “LRC”, (2) pick the desired resource, (3) add it to the resources recipient list, (4) click “ok” to close the address book (which will send you back to your meeting request)
1. if there are several equivalent resources you could use (like any of our voice recorders), you can quickly compare their immediate availability using the scheduling window in the right pane
2. if you need a better overview over availability of the resource, and other participants, add multiple resources to the to-list and compare their availability using the “Scheduling Assistant” which features a full legend and easy-to-read begin/end markers for your chosen begin/end times
In the address book, you have a limited (to today) preview of the (3) schedule of the resource, which can aid you in deciding which resource to add to the resources-list
1. Alternatively, for a more expansive schedule, add all equivalent resources (e.g. lights) and decide later in the scheduling assistant which one to send the meeting request to

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: calendaring, global-address-list, ms-exchange, ms-outlook, resource-mailboxes, resource-scheduling

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How to book an LRC resource by making a Meeting Request in OWA

2011/08/31 plagwitz 13 comments

A meeting request is – as you can see from its icon: – an email with calendar information.
In OWA, start writing a (2) meeting request, like an email, from the (1) menu: ”new” (click not on “new” directly, but on the arrow next to “new” to unfold the menu:
By default, the meeting will show you as the organizer in the calendar. In addition, on default tab : appointment, like in an email, you may want to add subject (like your course number), and a message body (e.g. “to make audio recordings with 20 students”).
Start adding “resources” (do not send “to” a room or equipment piece, and send “to” people only if you need them to staff the room or operate the equipment for you) by clicking it:
This will open the window: Address book (read more on the Address book), find and select your “LRC” resource in the list of LRC bookable resources and click “OK”:
Switch from default tab : appointment to tab: scheduling assistant , and set the meeting (1) start and (2) end day/time, to when the resource is (3) available: (read more on the Scheduling Assistant)
from the default tab : appointment, click button: send.
For what happens next, see responses and calendar.
For a high-level overview, see this LRC calendaring How-to

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: calendaring, meeting-requests, ms-exchange, ms-outlook, resource-mailboxes, resource-scheduling

Room and Equipment handling using MS-Exchange Resource Mailboxes: To train in Outlook Desktop or in OWA ?

2011/08/30 plagwitz 2 comments

While Outlook desktop is a more powerful calendaring tool than OWA (cf. viewing calendars in overlay mode), we decided to first focus on getting everybody to be functional with meeting requests in OWA, since

faculty will want to use this system from their home computers where the outlook desktop configuration, if it exists at all , is probably even more lacking. Students could, but are not likely to have outlook desktop either
both faculty and students (both for rooms and for equipment) will walk up to the LRC reception desk needing help, and then only OWA is available
it is actually part of both equipment check-out and check-in procedure (if not for rooms, then for equipment) that I am designing that faculty and students open up from OWA (on the web browser that the lab assistant is not using: internet explorer, Firefox, Safari should gives us always 2 options on either operating system) that the meeting that they have made (or if not made, make one on the fly), and that the lab assistant enters a code (generated on the PC at the reception desk) into their appointment and sends the update for them to see them through;
we can also serve as backup on our office computers for the reception desk (unstaffed or understaffed), if clients use OWA

Essentially, it is not a PC Environment anymore (although it could be if our Remote Desktop infrastructure were much stronger).

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, training Tags: calendaring, ms-exchange, ms-outlook, resource-mailboxes, resource-scheduling

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Calendaring: What happens after the meeting request? Automated or manual responses and reminders

2011/08/30 plagwitz 3 comments

If you have been invited to a meeting, e.g. a co-taught class in the LRC, you will see in your inbox an email-like meeting request with pre-set answer options:

Wait, there is more: Proposing:
If you followed the instructions in TBA:request meeting, you should immediately get an acceptance response from the resource:
If something went wrong, read the denial response for how to overcome the issue:

there are resource specific policies, like maximum booking duration, listed here: TBA: list resources
if there is a conflict with a prior booking of the resources, please go back to the meeting request scheduling assistant and find a time when the resource is available.
if you requested a recurring/repeating meeting, like for a weekly class meeting in the LRC, there may be individual conflicts. Note that we have set the resource scheduling options for the non-conflicting instances of your request to be accepted (in most cases). For how to deal with the conflicting instances, study the conflict information in the denial response.

Note that the LRC calendars are set up so that the LRC staff is copied (as delegates) on LRC resource requests (as a backup for issues and paper trail for reporting):
If you find you get too many meeting reminders that you do not need, when requesting a meeting, turn the default reminder option off:

The reminder can also be set to off as default in the calendar settings for a resource.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-students, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: 2007, 2010, 2011, calendaring, live@edu, ms-exchange, outlook, outlook-live, resources, scheduling

Room and Equipment handling using MS-Exchange Resource Mailboxes: Configuration with OWA instead of PowerShell

2011/08/30 plagwitz 1 comment

As once can easily find documented for MS-Exchange 2007, if you are the owner of the mailbox, you can use the OWA-feature “open other mailbox”.
As impersonated user for this mailbox , you can access the “Options / Settings”:
for the “resource” scheduling
for its “calendar”
This is maybe not as much fun as PowerShell’s Set-MailboxCalendarSettings and set-CalendarProcessing (click as you go, no batching), but easier on your MS-Exchange admin and especially practical for quick modifications and tests,

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, documentation, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: 2007, 2010, 2011, calendaring, exchange, live@edu, ms-exchange, outlook, outlook-live, resources, scheduling, setcalendarprocessing

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: LRC resources in the Global Address List (GAL)

2011/08/30 plagwitz 3 comments

Open the GAL for resources by clicking on “Resources” in a meeting request, like here:

You will find an equivalent of the LRC bookable resources list in Outlook’s/O’WA’s Global Address List.
In the GAL,you can filter by recipient type:
1. the result, in outlook:
for LRC resources, especially other than rooms, it is easier to filter by name(all LRC resource names start with “LRC”) – the result,
1. in Outlook:
2. in OWA you will see the GAL as part of the address book

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, service-is-library, training Tags: 2007, 2010, 2011, calendaring, live@edu, ms-exchange, outlook, outlook-live, resources, scheduling

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How to cancel meetings in OWA

2011/08/30 plagwitz 4 comments

View instead a short screencast how to cancel meeting requests in OWA.
Or: You start out with a meeting request conversation like this, showing:
1. a request send from account LRC help (example)
2. an accepted meeting response from the resource (e.g. the room) account
to cancel that meeting, you can go to your (!) calendar in OWA,
1. select (click on) the meeting and choose “delete”
  1. either from the context menu after right-click the meeting
    1. or from the ribbon after selecting the meeting
  2. if the meeting was repeating/recurring, you will be given the option to
you can also just open the meeting and choose from the top menu the “Cancel meeting” button, then press menu button: “Send update”:
1. 1. Again, for recurring/repeating meetings, you will be asked to confirm what exactly you want to cancel, the individual occurrence or the entire series of meetings:
2. You have the opportunity to include an informative note in your update before sending.
After the cancellation has gone through, this is how the results will look like in the e-paper trail:
1. “sent items”
2. a cancelled meeting conversation in your “inbox” in “conversation view”:
3. Here is a complete icon legend: