Add voting buttons to an email when you want to poll a group of people on a specific question, with a limited set of options, such as where to go out for lunch, or the best time for an event.
Add voting buttons to an email message
- Create a new email message with instructions telling your recipients to vote. Then open the Options tab at the top and click Use Voting Buttons.
- There are three default options:
- Approve;Reject,
- Yes;No,
- Yes;No;Maybe.
- Click Custom.... to create your own buttons.
- Delete the default button names (Approve;Reject) and type the options you want. Make sure you separate the button names with semicolons (e.g., Vanilla;Chocolate;Strawberry).
- By default, responses will return to the sender. If you want the responses to go to more than one person or a group, place a check mark next to Have replies sent to and then enter the email address, or click Select Names... and find the names from the Global Address List.
- Add all the email addresses that you want to receive the voting results and click OK.
- Other options: check the Do not deliver before and Expires after boxes to set a date and time when the voting starts and ends.
- When you have completed your changes, click Close. Then send your message to the people you want to vote.
How to vote (what the recipient sees)
When the recipient looks at the email, they will see a notice at the top of the email with instructions on how to vote. The instructions may be slightly different depending on the version of Outlook.
Once they vote, they will be prompted to do one of the following:
- Send the response now.
- Edit the response before sending (in case they have information to add).
Tallying votes received
The original message sender will receive an email every time a recipient votes. They can easily track the voting by opening up the original sent email and clicking the Tracking button under the Message tab. This tracks each response, who has voted, and shows the voting totals.
