How to Use Outlook Scheduling Assistant on Your PC

Learn how to plan meetings with a dedicated tool

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Key notes

  • Outlook's Scheduling Assistant helps users plan meetings and send out invitations to attendees.
  • The Scheduling Assistant can be found in Outlook's Meeting tab.
  • The tool allows you to set a time, date, location, and attendees.
  • You can also create a custom note to send to the people you want to invite to the meeting.
use Scheduling Assistant outlook

Setting up meetings or booking conference rooms arenโ€™t necessarily activities you enjoy. Outlook has ways to handle this for you, so donโ€™t hesitate to learn how to use Outlook Scheduling Assistant.

Letโ€™s assume youโ€™ve been tasked with planning a meeting with several attendees. You set up the meeting and send it out without having any way to make sure everyone can actually come. What happens next?

Instead of ending up with several responses telling you that either they are unavailable or would like to propose a new time, let the Scheduling Assistant do the heavy lifting.

How can I use Outlook Scheduling Assistant?

1. Plan a meeting

1. Open Outlook on your computer.

2. Inย Outlook, click on the Calendar section in the bottom left corner of the screen.

outlook click calendar

3. From theย Home tab, at the top left of the screen, click on theย New Meeting icon.

4. Selectย New Meetingย from the drop-down list.

5. A new window appears next. From theย Meeting tab, click onย Scheduling Assistant.

outlook select scheduling assistant

6. Now, itโ€™s time to enter aย description of the meetingย in theย Title text box.

7. In theย Required text box, enter theย email address of each attendee required to attend the meeting. In Outlook 2016 and 2013 instead, enter theย attendeesย in theย To fieldย and theย conference roomย you want to book under theย Resources field.

8. Then enter theย Startย andย End times. From theย Suggested Times list, you can choose the desired time or make adjustments to your time and date to find a time that works for everyone.

outlook suggested times list

9. In theย Location text box, enter theย addressย orย room number where the meeting will be held.

10. Up next, in theย Message area, enter anyย notesย your attendees will need to know before the meeting such as anyย special instructionsย or theย Agenda.

11. When youโ€™re done setting up the meeting, clickย Send.

Outlook Scheduling Assistant can be easily used to plan a meeting . You can set up the time, date, location and attendees, as well as create a special note to be sent to them.

When you send a meeting invitation in Outlook, the invitation includes a request for a response and gives the recipient the option to suggest a new time for the meeting.


2. Export the Outlook Scheduling Assistant to Excel

  1. Open Outlook and go to File.
  2. Go to Open & Import and the Import/Export wizard will open.Import Export
  3. Select Export to a file.Export to a File
  4. Click Next to continue.
  5. In the Export to a File dialog, select Comma Separated Values.
  6. Then, click Next.
  7. Now, select Calendar from Outlook Data File.Calendar from Outlook Data File
  8. Click Next once more.
  9. When the Export to a File dialog displays, click the Browse button. Here you can select the fileโ€™s destination.Browse button
  10. Choose the destination where the file can be saved. Name the file and click OK to close the dialog.
  11. When the Export to a File dialog displays again, hit Next to continue.
  12. Then, click Finish to export your Outlook calendar.
  13. Outlook exports the specified calendar as a CSV file. Open it with Microsoft Excel, and then save the file as a workbook.

If youโ€™re looking for a way to share your Outlook Scheduling Assistant with others, you can export your calendar to Excel, and then import it into othersโ€™ Outlook calendar folder by following the above steps.


3. Set a time zone for a meeting or appointment

Note that when you create such new meetings or appointments, Outlook uses the default time zone in your Outlook preferences for Calendar. This doesnโ€™t mean that you cannot specify a different time zone for an event as you are creating it.

To display the Time zone selector, on either the Organizer Meeting tab or the Appointment tab, click Time Zones. There, specify the precise time zone of the event.

If older versions for Outlook for Mac can display only two time zones, in the most recent version of Outlook for Mac for Office 365 and Outlook 2019 no less than three separate time zones can be displayed in the Calendar.


Eager to download Outlook calendars? Find out how it’s done right here!


This article showed you how to use Outlook Scheduling Assistant, export it to Excel, and set the time zone for a meeting or appointment in Outlook. Easy, right?

Just remember that instructions apply to Outlook for Office 365, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, and Outlook 2013.

If you found this article useful, let us know in the comments section.

More about the topics: Outlook Guides