OpenSlot · Guides
Guides
Practical answers for people who schedule all day: getting availability out of Outlook, merging calendars, and keeping timezones honest.
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Which US industries actually run Microsoft 365? We measured 13,051 businesses
Original research: Microsoft 365 penetration by trade, measured from public DNS records for 13,051 US businesses. Staffing firms 72%, ad agencies 30%.
How to send your availability from Outlook (without retyping it)
Three ways to send your free times from an Outlook calendar as text — from the manual method to a one-click paste-ready list.
How to find a time everyone is free in Outlook
Scheduling Assistant shows the grid — here's how to turn multi-person Outlook free/busy into an actual list of open times.
Sending interview availability to candidates, faster
A recruiter workflow for offering interview times: merge the panel's Outlook calendars and paste one clean list into your outreach.
Outlook Scheduling Assistant vs. OpenSlot: which for what
An honest comparison — Scheduling Assistant books a meeting now; OpenSlot produces a shareable list of when everyone is free.
An alternative to FindTime scheduling polls: skip the vote, send the times
Scheduling polls add a round-trip. For most meetings, sending a clean list of open times gets to a booked meeting faster.
Sharing availability across time zones without mistakes
Why timezone math ruins scheduling emails, and how to send a list that's already converted to the other person's zone.
The executive assistant workflow for offering meeting times
How EAs can turn 'send them some times for next week' into a twenty-second task using merged Outlook availability.
How to copy free/busy times out of Outlook as text
Outlook shows free/busy everywhere but exports it nowhere. Here's how to get your open slots out as clean, copyable text.
How to write an availability email (templates that get a fast yes)
Copy-paste templates for offering meeting times by email — how many slots to give, how to state the timezone, and how to make the reply a one-word yes.
Outlook free/busy explained: what others can see, and why some calendars show as unavailable
What free/busy actually reveals, who in your organization can read it, how to fix 'no free/busy information could be retrieved', and why external people can't see yours.
How to schedule with clients and candidates outside your company (whose calendar you can't see)
External people's calendars are invisible to you in Outlook. The workable pattern: send your side's merged availability as a list, in their timezone, and let them pick.
How many time slots should you offer for a meeting? (and how to pick them)
Three to six options across at least two days, in the other person's timezone, sized to the meeting — the etiquette of offering times, and why 'whenever works' backfires.
How Many Interview Time Slots to Offer a Candidate
How many interview times to offer, how far out to spread them, and how to word the list so the candidate replies with one line.
How to Send Availability Across Time Zones
How to write meeting times for someone in another time zone so nobody converts wrong, plus how to generate the list from Outlook free/busy.
Outlook Scheduling Poll vs Sending Times in the Email
When Outlook's built-in Scheduling Poll is the right tool, when pasting two or three times into the email wins, and how to do each one fast.
How to file Outlook email faster: rules, Sweep, Quick Steps and add-ins
Outlook's built-in ways to get mail out of the inbox, where each one stops helping, and what to check before you install an add-in to do the filing for you.
Outlook has no "Send availability" button: why, and what to do instead
The Send availability option is missing in your Outlook. Here are the usual reasons, which Outlook versions have it, and three ways to send times anyway.
"Need admin approval" when connecting a scheduling tool to Microsoft 365
Why Microsoft 365 shows "Need admin approval" when you connect a scheduling tool, what your IT admin is actually approving, and how to get unblocked.
How to send a client the times your whole team is free
Outlook shows you a free/busy grid but will not export it. Here is how to turn several colleagues' calendars into a list of times you can paste in an email.
How to send your availability in a Teams message
Share your free times in a Teams chat so the other person can just reply with one: formats that survive Teams, group-chat etiquette, and where the times come from.