Your system administrator may have setup Outlook 2003 to publish Free/Busy information. This means that when others send meeting requests, they can first see whether or not you are free or busy for a particular time, and vice-versa.

If you commonly are asked into meetings months in advance, yet the meeting times conflict with other planned appointments, you may need to increase the Free/Busy data that you publish. This way, for example, a scheduled appointment 3 months down the line will show up when others attempt to add you to meetings then. To make this change:

1. Click "Tools" and select "Options".

2. When the "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, select the "Preferences" tab.

3. Click the button "Calendar Options".

4. When the "Calendar Options" dialog box appears, click the "Free/Busy Options" button.

5. When the "Free/Busy Options" dialog box appears, next to "Publish", enter in the month(s) of Free/Busy information you want available to other users.

6. Click "OK" on the three dialog boxes to close them.

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Return to the Outlook 2003 Calendar and Meeting page.