Microsoft Outlook 2007
Using the Email Voting Option
The Voting feature allows you to send out an inquiry and have your recipients vote on it. Once recipients have responded with their vote, you can view both individual votes and all votes.
There are three main areas of the Voting feature.
Considerations
To maximize the effectiveness of your voting message, consider the following as you compose the message.
-
Limit voting messages to one question per message.
-
While the recipient is able to include a message with their vote, it is best to keep the inquiry simple enough so that the available choices serve as a sufficient answer without an attached explanation.
-
If you are creating custom response choices, it is recommended that the number of choices be limited to between three and five.
-
To make sure your recipients know how to respond, in your message you should identify that the Voting Button will appear furthest left on the Message tab. After they click on the VOTING button a pull down menu will appear displaying their available voting choices.
Creating a Voting Message
The Voting feature of Outlook 2007 allows you to send a message requesting the recipient's vote. The recipient then votes using the choices that you designate.
Creating a Voting Message: Default Voting Buttons
Outlook provides three pre-defined voting options: Approve/Reject, Yes/No, and Yes/No/Maybe.
-
On the Standard toolbar, click NEW MAIL MESSAGE
A new mail message appears. -
Select the Options tab
-
In the Tracking group, click USE VOTING BUTTONS
» select the desired voting response options
NOTE: There will be no visible change to your message. -
In the To... text box, type the addresses of the voting message's recipients
-
In the Subject text box, type a subject line for your message
-
In the message body, type your voting message
HINT: It is recommended that you inform your recipients how to cast their vote.
-
Click SEND
Creating a Voting Message: Custom Voting Buttons
If the pre-defined voting options do not meet your needs, Outlook allows you to create your own voting options to better suit your question.
EXAMPLE: If your question was "Where would you prefer to meet?" you could customize the voting options to be "On campus" and "Off campus."
-
On the Standard toolbar, click NEW MAIL MESSAGE
A new mail message appears. -
From the Options tab, in the Tracking group, select USE VOTING BUTTONS » Custom
The Message Options menu appears. -
In the Voting and Tracking options section, in the Use voting buttons text box, type your desired response choice
NOTE: Separate each choice with a semicolon.
-
Click CLOSE
NOTE: There will be no visible change to your message. -
In the message body, type your voting message
HINT: It is recommended that you inform your recipients how to cast their vote.
-
Click SEND
Casting Your Vote
When you have received a voting message, you can simply vote or you can vote and reply on its topic.
Casting Your Vote: Without a Typed Reply
-
Navigate to and double click the desired voting message
-
In the header of the message, click VOTE » select your voting response
A dialog box appears. -
To send your response without a typed reply, select Send the response now
-
Click OK
The vote is sent.
Casting Your Vote: With a Typed Reply
-
Navigate to and double click the desired voting message
-
In the header of the message, click VOTE » select your voting response
A dialog box appears. -
To send your response with a typed reply, select Edit the response before sending
-
Click OK
-
In the body of the message, type your reply
-
Click SEND
The vote is sent.
Tallying Votes
Viewing all votes allows you to see how many respondents voted on each choice designated; essentially it allows you to tally votes without having to view each individual vote separately.
-
Navigate to and double click the desired voting message
-
Above the From address, click the VOTE INDICATOR BAR
-
Click VIEW VOTING RESPONSES
The total replies of each category are shown above the recipient/response box. -
To return to the message, exit the View Voting Responses window
