Use Outlook to Take a Vote

Many a time, you need quick feedback from a group of colleagues for their schedules, opinions, or priorities. Such information comes in handy when fixing meetings, scheduling after-work events, arranging extra training sessions, and taking a rough poll of people's views on a certain subject or project. Microsoft’s Outlook makes this process easy for you through Voting Buttons. Here is a detailed guide for using this feature.

Outlook wraps up the entire process of seeking votes in two quick steps – creation of Vote buttons (Yes or No), and tallying responses when they come in.

To create voting buttons:

• Create a New Message
• Select the "Options" tab
• Select "Use Voting Buttons"
• Choose from options provided (Approve-Reject, Yes-No, Yes-No-Maybe, or Custom).
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Now, draft your email – clearly state the question that needs to be voted on, set the requisite deadlines, include all appropriate recipients, and send it. Recipients will see a note above the "From" field – Vote by clicking "Vote" in the Respond group above. They will also notice the "Vote" button, which displays your chosen options, when pressed.

Reply emails will have the voting option selected in the subject line. You can now tally the votes yourself, or let Outlook do the job, especially if you are dealing with a large number of respondents.

To tally the votes:

• Go to Sent Items
• Open the message that had voting buttons
• In the Ribbon, go to the "Show" section and select "Tracking"
• You will see the total number of replies, followed by a list of the individual votes.