How to Set Up a Conference Room as a \\"Resource\\" in Outlook 2000
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Updated : June 14, 2001
Kent Compton
Senior Technology Specialist
Microsoft Corporation
On This Page
Introduction
Introduction
In Microsoft's Midwest District Sales Office, where I work, I basically watched several folks going through the same steps, albeit slightly different, to configure each conference room as a resource. This led to issues and confusion, as you can well imagine. I know this is a problem for a lot of my customers as well, so I've transcribed here the process for setting up conference rooms as resources, and also created a document on how to use https://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/exchangeserver55/maintain/cfbook.mspx this capability, which you can pass out to your users.
Setting It Up
Prerequisite: You must be using Microsoft Outlook® 2000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5.
Log on to the workstation as a user who "owns" the conference room(s).
Make sure the time zone on the PC is set to the time zone the conference room resides in. This is done by choosing Control Panel, Date/Time, and Time Zone.
Open Mail Profile (choose Control Panel and then Inbox).
Create an online profile for the conference room(s). Enter the conference room alias name and the server name. There is no need to select options for a personal address book, ability to travel, etc.
Copy that profile and name it the conference room name.
Repeat as necessary for other conference rooms.
Open Outlook. If prompted for a Profile, choose the conference room profile you just created. If not,
In Outlook, select Tools, Options, Mail Services, Prompt for a profile to be used (see Figure 1). Click OK.
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Figure 1:
Exit and Log Off Outlook
Start Outlook and select the conference room profile you want.
From the drop-down menu, select Tools, Options, and Preferences.
From this window, select Calendar Options, Resource Scheduling.
Select all three check boxes (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2:
Click on Set Permissions.
Select the Permissions tab.
Set the Default User Role as Author.
Select OK/Apply to close the dialog box.
From the Calendar Options window, select Free/Busy Options.
Publish six months of data to the server.
Select OK/Apply and close all dialog boxes.
Go to the Calendar.
Enter a one-half hour "test" entry beginning at the next hour for that day.
Exit and log off Outlook.
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Users who are using Outlook 2000 will now be able to book the conference room as a resource and have it automatically accept the appointment as long as it doesn't conflict with another one or reoccur.
Notes:
Both the users and the conference room must be on Outlook 2000. It is actually the sender of the meeting request, based on appropriate permissions, who books the request on the resource's calendar.
Users must be using Outlook 2000 while online to automatically book a conference room.
The administrator cannot assign a delegate ownership to a conference room. Doing so cancels the ability to have the conference room AutoAccept appointments sent to it from users.
About the Author
Kent Compton is a Senior Technology Specialist for Microsoft's Midwest District Sales office (Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin) who specializes in building messaging/collaborative/knowledge management solutions using Microsoft technologies. He has 10 years of industry experience and has his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification. He can be contacted at Kentcomp@microsoft.com and would be happy to recommend a KM solution for your company. No technical support calls please.