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Have you ever received an invitation to an event that you wanted to attend but had a conflict at the time? If you are an Outlook user, you can propose a new time for that meeting, appointment or conference call.
Interestingly, the function to propose a new time for an event is not available in all versions of Microsoft Outlook. As of this writing in July 2021, you will be using the Outlook desktop app on Windows or Mac.
How to propose a new time in Outlook on Windows
You can propose a new time in Outlook from email invitation or calendar event.
In the email, click on “Suggest new time”. Then select “Proposal and propose new time” or “Reject and propose new time”.
To do this on the calendar, select the event and click on “Propose new time”. Then choose “Tentative and propose a new schedule” or “Reject and propose a new schedule”.
Either from your inbox or from your calendar, then you will choose the new time and click on “Propose time” to send the request to the organizer.
How to propose a new time in Outlook on Mac
Whether you are using Updated Outlook on your Mac or the original version of the application, you can propose a new time from the email or the event on the calendar.
Propose a new moment in the new perspective
You can propose a new time from the email invitation that you receive in your inbox or in the email.
In your inbox, click on “RSVP”, click on the Propose New Time button (clock face) and choose Tentative or Decline to follow the proposed time. Note that you will not see this option if you are using Compact view for your inbox.
In the email, click on “Propose New Time” and select Tentative or Decline to accompany the proposed time.
In the calendar, select the event and click “RSVP”. Click the Propose New Time button and choose Tentative or Decline and Propose New Time.
Propose a new moment in the original perspective
In the email, click on “Propose New Time” and select Tentative or Decline to accompany the proposed time.
In the calendar, click the “Propose new time” button and select Tentative or Decline and propose new time.
In any of the previous versions of Outlook on Mac and regardless of where you press the Propose New Time button, you will then select the time you want to propose to the organizer and click “Propose New Time” to send it.
What happens next?
After using the Outlook feature to propose a new time, the event organizer will receive an email. They can then accept your proposal and update the event with the new time or reject it and keep the event time as is.
It depends on the organizer, if you accept your proposal , send an updated request to the attendees.
Why is “Propose a new moment” missing?
If you think you should see the option to propose a new time in email or event in Outlook, but you don’t, there are a couple of reasons why this could be.
- Currently, you cannot propose a new time for recurring events.
- The organizer disabled the option for attendees to propose a new time.
To increase your productivity with Mac, read our guide to scheduling in Outlook 365 .