Receiving Calendar Invitations
When someone sends you a calendar invitation, it appears in your inbox just like any other email message. The invitation will contain the details of the appointment -- the day and time, a subject, maybe some additional details, a reminder option, etc. -- 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 will determine how that invitation is handled by SmarterMail. The following actions are available within webmail, and most, if not all, are also available in an email or calendar app you use 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 to shows 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.
- Propose Changes - This allows you to propose a new date and/or time for the event, and sends the proposed changes to the event organizer.
- Details - This displays the details of the event in a modal window that aligns with SmarterMail's New Appointment modal.
Propose Changes
Proposing changes to an invitation can be used when you may have a conflict come up, but you're unsure whether the conflict will occur or not. Another example is when a particular item is required for the event, such as a delivery from a third-party, but that delivery was delayed. Proposing a new time allows you to align the delivery with the proposed event.
When proposing a change to an invitation, you have the abilitly to suggest a change to the date of the appointment, the time, or both. If you're unsure, you can use the left and right buttons on the modal to check your availability on a specific day, and make your suggestion based on that. You can also select a "Reply Action", which gives you the ability to reply with "Accept", "Decline",or "Tentative". Proposing a new time, and replying with a specified action, works just like the actions available to you on the original invitation.
A nice feature of Propose New Time is, when interacting with others on your domain, you can see your availability and anyone else's availability to you can propose a new day or time what works with most, if not all, other attendees.
Responding to Invitations
Regardless of the action chosen when responding to an invitaion, once the reply is sent the original invitation is moved to your Deleted Items folder.
Adding a Reply
On occasion, you may have the ability to add a reply to your invitation response. This will generally appear as a text box at the bottom of the invitation. Here, you can type in things like a reason for declining an invite, information on why you're proposing changes, etc. On the sender's end, this reply will appear in plain text (usually) in the confirmation they get once your action is taken.