Receiving Calendar Invitations

When someone sends you a calendar invitation, it appears in your inbox just like any other email message, with a greeting that reads "You have been invited to attend an event." The invitation contains the details of the appointment — the day and time, a subject, the organizer and other attendees, maybe a description — and you will need to act on the message. The actions available to you are displayed as buttons at the top of the invitation, and the action you select determines how that invitation is handled by SmarterMail. The following actions are available within webmail, and most, if not all, are also available in any email or calendar app you may use on your desktop or mobile device:

Accept - This will add the event to your calendar and let the "event organizer" — the person who sent you the invitation — know that you have accepted the invitation and the event was added to your calendar.
Tentative - This will add the event to your calendar, but displays it with a dashed outline and a "(Tentative)" label to show its tentative status. Tentative acceptances are generally made when you're unsure whether you'll be able to attend the event or not.
Decline - This does NOT add the event to your calendar and it will let the event organizer know you have declined the invitation.
Check Availability - This displays an availability chart so you can compare the proposed meeting time against your own calendar — and, for attendees on your domain, everyone else's — before you commit to a response.
Details - This displays the full details of the event in a pop-out window that aligns with SmarterMail's appointment window.
Delete - This removes the invitation without sending any response to the organizer.

Note: One more action, Propose New Time, is displayed as a link next to the meeting's date and time rather than as a button. See below for details.

Adding a Reply

Before you respond, the invitation displays a Reply text box at the bottom of the invite. Here, you can type in things like a reason for declining an invite, information on why you're proposing changes, a note that you'll be ten minutes late, etc. Whatever you type is sent along with your response — whether that's Accept, Tentative, Decline, or a time proposal — and appears as a "Comment" on the organizer's copy of your reply.

Propose New Time

Proposing changes to an invitation is useful when the scheduled time doesn't work for you but the meeting itself does. Perhaps you have a conflict, or a particular item required for the event — such as a delivery from a third party — has been delayed. Proposing a new time allows you to suggest a new date and/or time for the event and sends the proposed changes to the event organizer.

Clicking the Propose New Time link opens a window showing when the meeting is currently scheduled, along with:

Proposed Start / Proposed End - Date and time pickers for the new time you're suggesting.
Reply Action - How your response should be recorded along with the proposal: Accept, Tentative, or Decline. This works just like the actions available on the original invitation. For example, you might choose Tentative with a proposal of an hour later, meaning "I can probably make it, but this time works better."
Availability - An availability chart for the attendees on the day being considered. Use the left and right arrows to step through days and find a time that works with most, if not all, other attendees. When interacting with others on your domain, you can see your availability and everyone else's; attendees outside your domain display as "Availability Unknown".

Once you're satisfied, click Send and the proposal — along with any Reply comment you added on the invitation — goes to the organizer. On the organizer's side, the proposal arrives with the proposed time marked "(Proposed)" and a View Proposals button that opens the event so the organizer can review and accept (or ignore) the suggested time.

Responding to Invitations

Regardless of the action chosen when responding to an invitation, once the reply is sent the original invitation is automatically moved out of your Inbox to your Deleted Items folder — there's nothing left for you to do with it, since the event (if accepted) now lives on your calendar. The organizer receives your response as an email whose subject is prefixed with your answer — "Accepted:", "Tentative:", or "Declined:" — followed by the meeting name, and the appointment on the organizer's calendar tracks each attendee's status.

If you open an invitation you've already responded to, the invite displays your response and when you made it — for example, "This invitation was accepted on" followed by the date.

Note: For recurring meetings, an invitation may cover the entire series or a single occurrence, and your response applies accordingly. You can also respond from the calendar itself: right-click the event to accept or tentatively accept either the whole series or just that occurrence.

Invitation Notices

A couple of notices may appear at the top of an invitation, and they're worth heeding:

"This invite is out of date." - The organizer has since sent an updated version of this invitation (e.g., the time changed after this copy was sent). Find the newest invitation in your mailbox and respond to that one instead.
"Event has been canceled." - The organizer cancelled the meeting. No response is needed.