Summary
How to invite people to a meeting in Outlook: add attendees, check their availability before you pick a time, choose whether to request responses, and send. Covers required versus optional attendees and the automatic Teams link.
Body
👥 Schedule a Meeting in Outlook Calendar
Invite people, see when they are free, and send the invitation.
✅ Before You Begin
- You need an active NEO A&M College account with SSO access
- An internet connection is required
- The names or email addresses of the people you want to invite
- 🕐 Estimated time: 5 minutes
💻 Which Outlook do these steps describe?
Written for
Outlook on the web and
New Outlook for Windows, which share the same layout.
Classic Outlook for Windows is laid out differently. If your ribbon has a
Send / Receive tab, you are using classic — see
Classic Outlook vs. New Outlook, or contact the Help Desk if these steps do not match what you see.
📩 Create and Send the Invitation 🕐 ~4 minutes | Any browser
- In Calendar, select New event on the Home tab.
- Give the meeting a clear title. Attendees see this in their inbox, so name the topic rather than the group.
- Type each person’s name or email address into Invite required attendees and pick them from the suggestions.
- Each person appears as a chip showing their availability at the selected time — for example Available.
- For people whose attendance is welcome but not needed, select the people icon at the right of that line and choose Add optional attendees.
- Set the date and time. To compare everyone’s calendars side by side first, select Scheduler.
- Add a location in Add a room or location if the meeting has a physical venue.
- Type an agenda or joining details in the large box underneath.
- Select Send.
⚠️ Note: Teams meeting switches itself on as soon as you add the first attendee, and a join link is added to the invitation. If you do not want an online meeting, switch the Teams meeting toggle back off before sending.
💡 Tip: The Save button becomes Send the moment there is at least one attendee. If it still says Save, nobody has been added yet and no invitation will go out.
✅ Choose Your Response Options 🕐 ~1 minute | Optional
Select the people icon at the right of the attendee line to open these. They are all on by default except the last one.
- Request responses — attendees get Accept, Decline, and Tentative buttons, and you see who has replied. Turn it off for an announcement nobody needs to answer.
- Allow forwarding — lets attendees pass the invitation to someone else. Turn it off for a meeting with a fixed list.
- Hide attendee list — attendees cannot see who else was invited. Useful for a large announcement, or where the invitee list itself is sensitive.
💡 Tip: If you are inviting a large group who do not need to reply, turning off Request responses spares everyone a mailbox full of acceptances.
📞 Still Need Help?
If you encounter any issues not covered in this guide, please contact the NEO A&M College IT Help Desk:
🌐 Helpdesk Portal: support.neo.edu
📞 Phone: (918) 540-6099
📧 Email: neosupport@neo.edu
📍 Walk-in: I.T. Services, Library/Administration Building, 2nd Floor, Room 216
🕐 Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM