Simple Email Message Instead of Meeting Request

[Craig Dayton]

I have been trying to research this on the Internet for a couple of weeks now
but am having no luck. I am hoping that you, Diane, or anyone might have an
answer, as I am running out of ideas.

I have a simple domain with Exchange 2003 and Outlook clients on Outlook
2003. Our customer has an Exchange that, I believe, is 2003 and Outlook
clients on Outlook 2007.

If one of MY clients on MY Exchange sends a meeting request to a mailbox on
our Exchange, the usual meeting request email comes through with the Accept,
Tentative, Decline. If someone on my Exchange sends a meeting request to a
mailbox on the CUSTOMER'S Exchange...again, the usual meeting request comes
through with the tabs.

However, if my CUSTOMER sends an email to a mailbox on my Exchange, a simple
email (NOT one with the Accept, Tentative, Decline buttons) comes through.
Below is an example of the email:

..........................................................
From: xxx
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:05 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: xxx

When: Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:00 AM-12:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time
(US & Canada).
Where: 101 Conference Room - Large
([email protected])*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
..........................................................

So, the question is, do you, Diane, or anyone have any idea why meeting
requests might be coming over to our side as simple emails instead of emails
with the stand Accept, Tentative, Decline?

Thank you for any thoughts and advice you might have on this.

Craig

 

[Craig Dayton]

I thought I would update my own post, as I was able to do some further
research on the Internet. Both Diane P and Sue M had addressed this issue,
or ones that were very similar, on other posts on the Internet and I thank
them both for that, but it was Brian Tillman who provided the answer that I
needed.

When the CUSTOMER is sending meeting requests, they are using their Contacts
or typing in the address. To correct the problem that mentioned in my post,
I had them double-click on my address at the To: prompt of the meeting
request. This would bring up the dialog box, where my customer could choose
one of the following:

- Let Outlook decide the best sending format
- Send Plain Text only
- Send using Outlook rich text format

They were either sending using the 1st or 2nd choice. They need to select
the third choice, i.e., Send using Outlook rich text format. Once they made
the change, the message requests came through with the tabs.

I would suggest that the change to the 3rd choice should be done actually in
Contacts so that the change is permanent.

Craig

 

[Brian Tillman]

They were either sending using the 1st or 2nd choice. They need to
select the third choice, i.e., Send using Outlook rich text format.
Once they made the change, the message requests came through with the
tabs.

I would suggest that the change to the 3rd choice should be done
actually in Contacts so that the change is permanent.

They should choose "Let Outlook decide", in my opinion. A meeting request
should go out properly with that setting and it will also enable them to
send you HTML or Plain Text messages when they wish. I have verified that
meeting requests do arrive correctly in Hotmail, POP, and IMAP accounts at
the far end when that setting is chosen, at least when sending Outlook 2003
to Outlook 2003. I don't have two Exchange environments with which to try
it, but Exchange, above all, should get it right. I also don't have acces
to my OL 2007 environment right now, so I can't try that on one end.
Nonetheless, if they use "Let Outlook decide" and you don't see the meeting
requests properly, then something else may be interfering and modifying the
outgoing message format. What do they have for Tools>Options>Calendar
Options>"When sending meeting requests over the Internet..."? Is it checked
or unchecked? If unchecked, does anything change if they check it (or vice
versa)?

 

[Craig Dayton]

Brian...

Thank you for your response. I will double check on what you have said and
do some further testing and get back to this thread.

Craig

 

[Craig Dayton]

UPDATE TO BRIAN...

I did some further testing, Brian, and what I found out was that using the
"Let Outlook decide" option did not work, i.e., the meeting request came
through as a simple email.

In regards to the "When sending meeting requests over the Interent" within
Tools>Options>Calendar Options, that particular check box is greyed-out. I'm
not sure why it is greyed out, but it is.

However, I am much happier than I was a couple of weeks ago, as at least the
"rich text format" fixes the problem.

So, thanks again Brian. I'm glad I found your post on the other site:

http://www.tutorials-win.com/Calendaring/Meeting-request-74121/

Craig