Microsoft Outlook 2003 Guide

This guide covers:

• Publishing your freebusy information to our site
• Using freebusy information of your contacts
• References

Publishing freebusy information to our site

1. From the Outlook Tools menu, select Options to bring up the Options panel.
   
   
2. Staying on the Preferences tab, click on the Calendar Options button to see the Calendar Options:
   
   
   
   
3. Click on the Free/Busy Options button:
   
   
   
   
4. Ensure that the 'Publish at my location' checkbox is ticked. Type in the path where you wish to publish your freebusy file, ending with a '.vfb' (the freebusy file extension); ensure that there are no spaces at the end of the name, this is a common problem!
   
   If you are using versions of Outlook earlier than 2003 or having problems with password authentication, your location should include the authtoken parameter (e.g. http://ifreebusy.com/<username>/work.vfb?authtoken=xxxx) found in the Account section and your initial email sent upon registration. In the screenshot below, replace 'username' with your ifreebusy.com account name.
   
   
   
   
5. Click OK three times to close all of the dialog boxes. If you are prompted for your username/password, enter your ifreebusy.com username and password.
   
   
6. Done! Your freebusy file will be published automatically to our site every 20 minutes. You can initiate publishing immediately by selecting the Send/Receive menu and selecting the Freebusy option.

Using freebusy information of your contacts

1. From the Outlook Contacts folder, open a Contact by double-clicking.
   
   
2. Go to the Details tab, and in the Internet Free-Busy section, type in the full path to the location of the Contact's freebusy information in the Address field. For example, 'http://www.ifreebusy.com/username/freebusy.vfb'.
   
   
   
   
3. To schedule a meeting with a Contact using freebusy information, click New Meeting Request on the Actions menu in the Calendar Folder, and enter your meeting details:
   
   
   
   
4. On the Scheduling tab, type in the name of the Contact in the All Attendees field, or select the name from the Add Others drop-down menu. Outlook will automatically insert the Contact's freebusy information in the planner:
   
   
   
   
5. Click the Send button to send the meeting invitation to your Contact.

References

1. Microsoft Support: How to use the Internet Free/Busy feature

Resources: