Microsoft Outlook Polls

Did you know you can create polls in email messages and review the results? Creating a poll in Microsoft Outlook is easy and can get you the information you need quickly. Voting buttons are included in the email and the results can be automatically tabulated or you can export the results into an excel file.

Sending out a poll can help you do anything from deciding on a place to have your happy hour to choosing a company catchphrase or getting feedback from customers on their satisfaction or a new service they might be interested in.

This is how you add a voting button:

1. Create an email message or reply to or forward a message that you received.
2. On the Options tab, in the Tracking group, click Use Voting Buttons.
3. Choose one of the following:
   • Approve;Reject 
     Use when you need an authorization for an action. For example, you can send an email request to several recipients seeking their approval of a project proposal.
   • Yes;No 
     Use when you need either a yes or a no. This is a good way to take a quick poll.
   • Yes;No;Maybe 
     Use when you don’t want to limit the choices to yes and no. This voting option offers an alternative response.

Customizing your voting button

Use to create your own custom voting button names. For example, you can ask your colleagues to choose among three days of the week for a recurring weekly staff meeting.

If you chose a Custom voting button, do the following:

1. In the Properties dialog box, under Voting and Tracking options, select the Use voting buttons check box.
2. Use the default button options, or delete the default options and then type the text that you want, and use semicolons to separate the button names.
3. Click Close.

Important: If you apply Information Rights Management (IRM) permissions (Options tab > Permission command) to a message, the recipient won’t see the voting options.

• Recipients can vote in the Reading Pane or in an open message. In the Reading Pane, click the Click here to vote line in the message header and then click the option that you want. In an open message, on the Message tab, in the Respond group, click Vote, and then click the option that you want.
• The sender can see all responses in a table. On one of the response messages, click The sender responded line in the message header, then click View voting responses.

Microsoft polls are a great way to get some quick feedback without having to create a form or tabulate the responses manually.

See it in action here.