Forum Discussion
MicrosoftAccept & Do Not Send a Response
Hi Calendar Community,
We'd like your feedback & reactions to a change we're considering:
Current experience:
When attendees receive a meeting invite, they are provided with 3 response options:
The first two options (Edit the response before sending & Send the response now) both send an email to the organizer, and the attendee's response is recorded in the organizer's tracking list.
The third option (Do not send a response) does not notify organizer, so the attendee's response remains as "None" in the organizer's tracking list.
What we'd like to change:
Many users report that they expect Do not send a response to be recorded in the organizer's tracking list, but just not to send an email. We are considering updating the behavior so that all 3 response options are recorded in the organizer's tracking list. Attendees can still use the Do not send a response option to avoid sending email to the organizer, but their response would now be recorded & shared with organizer.
Questions to the Community:
- Do you like this change? Does this match what you & others are expecting?
- What about when an organizer does not request responses (so there is just a simple Accept button without additional options)? Do you think the intention is to avoid email responses? In other words, would you expect this same behavior (responses are always recorded) to apply even when organizer does not request responses?
What's the status of this change to allow for tracking the response if the user selects "Accept Do Not Send a response"?
Thank you - Jack
307 Replies
Yes and Yes. This is an ongoing issue for our organization.
1) Yes to both questions.
2) Yes - change this as well.
We have confusion within our organization, as everyone we have spoken to has expressed they have the expectations that this already works this way.Thanks,
JamesYes and yes please - the current response labels do not accurately describe what's going on to the user. The default response should allow tracking but not email, then tracking with plus a user-edited email, then no response (with a clear indication the organiser will not know your response). I have been confused by the current descriptions, like many.
Nobody wants emails from all meeting attendees, this is a vestige of the past.
1. Yes. The confusion the current behavior causes was so great we recently REMOVED the 'do not send a reply' option through GPO. Although we'd like to avoid the clutter of unnecessary emails, the attendance tracking is essential.
2. Yes. Again, attendance tracking is essential. Even if the organizer doesn't care about attendee acceptance, the presence of the tracking data seems harmless and simply be ignored.
Use GPO or any other method you have to push the following registry setting:
Hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER Key path Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar Value name ForceMtgResponse Value type REG_DWORD Value data 0x1 (1)
Did you use the control ID's to accomplish this? Or a different route? If so which controlID's did you use?
- Julia Foran
Thanks for all the feedback, everybody! We're going to start on this improvement very soon. :-)
Julia Foran Please can you let me know if this improvement to response tracking is available in Outlook destop versions yet?
- 1. I love this change. That would be exactly what everyone is expecting.
2. If the organizer does not request a response, he or she would still like to be able to see if anyone has responded.
I cannot think of any reason why you would not want the calendar item to keep track of responses whereas there are many reasons why one might not want to send an email every time. 1. YES!!
2. YES!! - Avoid emails please. Give us one button and depending on the organizers setup an email will be avoided or sent.
I just received seven invitations from my Project Manager with 10 participants at each occasion. She now will receive 70 emails just because we want her to know we are coming. I also can't just click accept. I need to click twice on each invitation.
Please read this thread for more input and some takes on how absurd the present option (to hide from the organizer that you are coming) is: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/13424976-accept-do-not-send-a-response
I'm sure this would cause an issue, the point around 'Do not send a response' is that it doesnt send a response. There can be many reasons why this might be the case, for example if you were forwarded a meeting and dont want to create undue 'stress' to the meeting organiser in advance.
I think the problem here is offering too many choices by intersecting two separate functions, Accepting the meeting request and communicating with the organiser. Would it not be simpler to have a simple Accept Button and a Reply Button next to each other. Then the choice to update the meeting organiser could be treated more like Read Receipts and become a separate user choice.
- I totally agree! Simplify please!
Hi Julia,
For 1, yes, this would be a good change. Many a time, we look at tracking status for a meeting, and we have no idea if half the attendees might attend or not.
For 2, probably yes, but only if the lack of options would only apply to full "Accept". Any tentative accept or a decline should always have the option to send a response. For example, if I have overlapping meetings, I may do a tentative acceptance on one of them, and provide feedback to indicate why I'm only tentative. Similarly, if I decline, I should have the opportunity to inform the meeting organizer of the reason as it may prove to be a reason to reschedule the meeting.
Yes and yes to both questions. I think that if the organizer does not request responses is mainly because she doesn't want a bunch of incoming emails, but updates to the tracking list don't bother.
