applied tips : february 2007
microsoft outlook : rock the vote
It's two weeks before the company party, and you have been assigned the daunting task of booking a caterer and ordering hors d'oeuvres for 300 hungry people. Problem is, you have no idea what to order. Aaron likes seafood, but Suanne wants tofu. Jon likes fruit, but Jaede is deathly allergic to pineapple. There's no way you can please each and every person in the company, but with Outlook's voting feature, you can try!
How it works
Outlook's voting feature is a powerful survey tool that lets you conduct a vote via e-mail, and then it automatically tabulates the results for you afterwards. When you conduct a vote, options (that you, the sender, specify) appear as buttons in an e-mail message that will be sent to a group of people, which, in this case, is the entire company.
Recipients of your e-mail can simply click the button of their choice to respond and "vote." Their vote is then automatically recorded in the copy of your original message, which is stored in the Sent Items folder.
Let's get started
Click the New Mail Message button on the toolbar to begin a new e-mail message. In the To: text box, enter the e-mail addresses of all individuals included in the survey. In the Subject text box, type a name for your survey, such as "Party hors d'oeuvres." In the body of the message, type anything that you feel is pertinent, like instructions, or you can also choose to leave it blank.
Click the Options button on the toolbar. Check the Use voting buttons checkbox and then click the down arrow in the Use voting buttons text box. A list of preset voting buttons appears. The preset voting buttons include: Approve; Reject, Yes; No, and Yes; No; Maybe. Not exactly a thorough list, is it? Don't worry?you can also type in your own choices; just make sure to separate each option with a semicolon.
In the Use voting buttons text box, type in your own choices, making sure to separate each with a semicolon. For example: Smoked Salmon Tartare; Stuffed "Deviled" Eggs with Dijonaisse; Quiche Lorraine. Now you're ready to conduct your vote!
Click Close to close the Options dialog box, then click the Send button on the toolbar. Voila! The message form closes and Outlook sends the survey e-mail message to all recipients.
The results are in!
When each recipient opens your message, they can click the button of their choice and then send their decision back to you. For each response you receive, Outlook will automatically tally the results for you.
When people respond to a survey e-mail by clicking the button of their choice, their responses are then delivered to your Inbox. Their answer appears in the Subject field so that you can view their response at a quick glance. If you are tracking a large number of responses, you can also check your copy of the original message in the Sent Items folder, which tracks and tallies all voting responses for you. Let's get going!
Click the Send/Receive button on the toolbar to send any outgoing mail and receive any incoming mail. If you were only tracking a handful of votes, you could tally the results simply by looking at the Subject fields of the e-mail responses you receive in your Inbox.
In this case, however, we are tracking a large number of responses, so let's check your Sent Items folder.
Viewing responses
If you are using Outlook 2000 or 2002, click the Folder banner to open the Folder List, and then click the Sent Items folder. If you are using Outlook 2003, click the Folder List button in the Navigation Pane, and then click the Sent Items folder. Find and double-click the original survey message that you sent out, then click the Tracking tab (located directly below the toolbar).
The Tracking tab shows you a list of the people you have asked to vote and how each of them voted. The Tracking tab also displays all tallied voting results in a banner across the top of the page.
What a genius you are! Now you can see which choice garners the most votes, and then order the hors d'oeuvres accordingly. You might want to send out a separate email for desserts, and another one for cocktails. The possibilities are endless!
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