Meeting invites outside our organization are coming over as plain text (therefore, not scheduled in the recepients calendars)... They use icalendar. icalendar format option is disabled by default in outlook (Outlook 2007) . 1. In Outlook, go to Tools > Options. 2. On the Preferences tab, click Calendar Options. 3.Under Advanced options, "When sending meeting requests over the Internet, use iCalendar format option" is greyed outis this because by default and it normal or it's done using group policy, am not sure.Any suggestions !!!

Hi,It's normal. Add a POP3 account to the mail profile and check the box is available Regards from www.windowsadmin.info

Thanks for reply Philip.My question is how do I ensure that outgoing invite (to internet) from outlook is sent in iCalendar format not in plain text.

Hi,iCalendar is the Internet standard for exchanging meeting requests with applications other than Outlook. I found from my web research that you need do nothing special in Outlook to ensure that your meeting requests go out as iCalendar messages to people outside your organization. Regards from www.windowsadmin.info

Firstly, I’d like to explain a little for delivering the internet meeting request In Outlook, meeting request is saved in the MAPI format, which is a binary format. All of the e-mails transferred in the Internet, including meeting requests, are in the MIME format, which is an International standard that almost all mail servers can understand. When we send a meeting request to an Internet recipient, an e-mail in the MIME format is created and the meeting request is encapsulated in it. In the MIME message, the meeting information can be saved in two forms: · In the meeting.ics attachment: So called iCalendar format, which is an International standard format. It consists of ASCII data · In the winmail.dat attachment: So called TNEF format, which is a Microsoft proprietary format and the data is in the binary format Generally, you need to enable HTML or Plain Text to send normal emails. This is because Rich Text is a proprietary format of Microsoft. You would probably see the mails or attachment could not be recognized if you enabled it. Only in situations where you need to send vote; meeting request, receipt or other Microsoft specific attachment, you are suggested to use it Only Rich Text format mail can maintain such attachment to ensure the integrity on both the sender and recipient's side. If not, the attachment will probably lose or stripped before it reaches recipient's Exchange server. That’s the reason why all meeting requests will use Rich Text format by default You can use RTF for the domain that you will send the internet meeting request to By the way, if internet recipient receives a meeting request as plain text, there are two possible causes: 1. There are some third-party software removing or blocking the TNEF attachment, such as anti-virus or firewall 2. If some event sink registered on Exchange server modified the message class of the meeting request. The correct message class is IPM.Schedule.Meeting.Request Resources: How to configure Internet e-mail message formats at the user and the domain levels in Exchange Server 2003James Luo TechNet Subscriber Support (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms788697.aspx) If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com

If I currectly understood, by default meeting requests sent to internet is encoded in Mime format and has an attachment (meeting.ics). Now for the destination email system to currectly understand this format it should support iCalendar format and MIME. If this is the case then, I should not face issues as the destination email system is supporting Mime and iCalendar (but are not running on MS Exchange).My doubt is, do I need to send mails in RTF format or it's not required (I undersatand that the RTF message will not be readable if the destination email system do not uses MS Exchange even if they do support MIME and iCalendar format).Note (The senders email system is E2k7).

If you want to send meeting to Internet, it will be transferred to MIME and the meeting content will be encapsulated to an ics attachment (Or winmail.dat). Only a RTF mail can maintain the attachment to ensure the integrity on both the sender and recipient's side. If not, the attachment will probably lose or stripped before it reaches Resources: Exchange 2007: Managing Remote Domains Exchange 2007 external Meeting Request through MessageLabs James Luo TechNet Subscriber Support (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms788697.aspx) If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com

Hi Jame,i fyou look at the MS URL http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP052818711033.aspx, it says to enable iCal by checking the box for "When sending meeting requests over the Internet, use iCalendar format" My query is why by default the check box is greyed out and how can i enable it.I know that to send meeting request over to internet I need to use RTF format, but what if the recipient does not has Microsoft outlook client. What should be the solution here.

I think that ManU above have answered it. The checkbox is enabled when you add a HTTP (POP/IMAP) email account to the profile, otherwise this option is grayed out, but the format is iCalendar by default if the e-mail format is HTML or Plain Text in a MAPI account. Of course the format doesn’t solely depend on the client sideJames Luo TechNet Subscriber Support (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms788697.aspx) If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com