How to Find Available Rooms Using the Outlook Plug-In

Outlook is a good tool for booking meetings and it has native functionality for adding rooms. The Space Connect outlook plug-in can be used to provide additional features such as searching for rooms based on resources.

In Outlook, go to the calendar and select "New Meeting". The standard "New Meeting" dialogue will appear. From the ribbon toolbar, click on the Space Connect plug-in which has the text "Search for Available Spaces". The plug-in will launch in the sidebar on the right. It may ask you to authenticate, click your email to sign in and then you will be presented with the plug-in home page.

Click on "Find Available Rooms". The room preferences page will then open allowing you to specify search criteria.

Important: When searching for available rooms, the add-in uses the dates and times from the Outlook event.

Location: These are the building/office locations defined in Space Connect.
Level: These are the levels or floors within the selected building. Also defined in Space Connect.
Seating Capacity: Rooms listed in Space Connect can have a capacity defined that can be used to search. This field is not linked to the "Capacity" field held in Exchange.
Room Type: Rooms in Space Connect can be categorised as "Training Room" or "Meeting Room".
Resources: It is possible to record resources for each room in Space Connect. This information can then be used for searching.

Enter the required search criteria and click on "Next".

You will see a list of available rooms that the search criteria and meeting date/time. Click "Map View" to see where the room is located within the building. Once you have selected the room you would like click "Add to Booking. This room will then be added to the meeting in the Outlook meeting. The window will remain open if you wish to change the room. If you're happy with the booking then click "Close"

Continue to create the meeting in Outlook as usual and click "Send" to make the room booking.