There are two ways to create a new meeting invitation — from your Outlook toolbar if you are a connected user or directly from the web after logging in.

Connected Users (using the TimeBridge Connector for Outlook)

If you have downloaded the TimeBridge Connector for Outlook, you can open a new meeting invitation by clicking on the New Meeting button in the TimeBridge toolbar.

Simply complete the form by typing the names or email addresses of attendees in the To field, which will auto-complete against your Outlook address book. Enter a meeting topic, message to your attendees and a meeting location or call-in information, if it's a phone call.

When you click on the proposed times section, a calendar will appear. From here, you can propose up to 5 meeting times by clicking and dragging on the calendar.

Since your TimeBridge is connected to your Outlook, you will be able to see your own schedule as well as availability information from any attendees who are on your Exchange server. Additionally, if other TimeBridge users have invited you to their Personal Availability Network, you will be able to see their free/busy information in the calendar, too.

When you are done proposing times and have completed the invitation form, click Send and an email invitation will be sent to your attendees.

The attendees of the meeting will receive your email and can respond with their availability. Your attendees don't need any special software other than a web browser to respond.

If possible, the TimeBridge Assistant will pick the best meeting time based on the attendee responses. At this point, your Outlook calendar is automatically updated — the tentative appointments are removed and the final meeting time remains on your calendar.

Unconnected Users

You can use TimeBridge without downloading any software. Simply log in at www.timebridge.com and click on New Meeting button. Complete the new invitation form as above.

You can create new meetings, but you won't be able to see your calendar or address book information directly in TimeBridge. We will remember who you invite and we'll auto-complete their names and email addresses when you create future meetings.

Even if you are unconnected, you will be able to see other TimeBridge connected users' availability if they have included you in their Personal Availability Network.

If you aren't using Outlook, we have plans to connect more calendars so you can get the benefits of integrating your calendar and address book with TimeBridge's personal scheduling manager. If you have Outlook and have not downloaded the TimeBridge Connector, we recommend you do so to realize the full power of TimeBridge.

Attendees will receive the email that you sent and will be asked to respond with their availability. They will be directed to a simple web page where they can enter their availability and preferences.

Once all of the attendees have responded, the TimeBridge Assistant will automatically confirm the best meeting time, assuming that there was at least one time slot that worked for all attendees.

In some cases, the TimeBridge Assistant will be unable to automatically confirm the final meeting time due to availability conflicts across the attendees (TimeBridge will only auto-confirm a meeting if there is at least one time slot that works for all attendees).

When this happens, TimeBridge will immediately send you an email notification reporting the conflict. At this point, you can go to the Meeting Room and resolve the conflicts. There are many ways to handle the conflict and your approach will depend on the nature of the meeting and your personal style.

In some cases, the TimeBridge Assistant will be unable to automatically confirm the final meeting time due to availability conflicts across the attendees (TimeBridge will only auto-confirm a meeting if there is at least one time slot that works for all attendees).

When this happens, TimeBridge will immediately send you an email notification reporting the conflict. At this point, you can go to the Meeting Room and resolve the conflicts. There are many ways to handle the conflict and your approach will depend on the nature of the meeting and your personal style. The options include: 

• Propose New Meeting Times

  You can select additional proposed times for your attendees to choose from, though if you previously proposed five times, you'll have to delete some of the old time slots to free up space for the new proposed times. Attendees will automatically receive a notification with the new times.

• Confirm a Proposed Time

  You can manually pick the final meeting time, even if it doesn't work for everyone invited. This is helpful when you think the attendees with conflicts aren't required for the meeting to take place or when you think they might be able to change their schedules to make the meeting. All attendees will automatically receive a notification about the final meeting time.

• Cancel Meeting

  You can cancel the meeting if needed. When you cancel, you can choose to have TimeBridge notify all attendees that the meeting will no longer take place. You also have the option of sending a customized message when you cancel the meeting.

• Change Attendee Availability

  As the organizer, you can change availability responses on behalf of attendees. This is helpful when an attendee tells you their availability in person or over the phone.

• Remove an Attendee

  You can also remove an attendee from a meeting using this feature. To remove an attendee, check the box next to the attendee's name and click the Remove button.

• Invite Another Attendee

  You can invite new attendees. This is useful if you want to swap one attendee for another (e.g., an attendee can't make it but suggests someone that should go in their place).

In some cases, an attendee might forget to respond to your invitation. Don't worry — the TimeBridge Assistant will send you a notification with enough time to take action. With one single click, the notification allows you to send a reminder to the non-responsive attendees or simply "snooze" for one additional day.

You can always visit the Meeting Room for the meeting to check attendee status at any point in time. You can visit the Meeting Room by following the links in the notifications or by using the My Meeting feature in the toolbar or the link in the web application.

When you send an invitation email to your attendees, they will be asked to respond with their availability on a simple web page. In some cases, your attendees might skip the web page and reply directly in person, through a phone call or simply by emailing you back. Don't worry — you can enter these replies right into TimeBridge and have the system continue to work for you as expected.

Simply open the Meeting Room, select the "Change attendee availability" on the top right side and set the correct reply for your attendee. You can get to the Meeting Room for a meeting by clicking on the My Meetings button in the toolbar or the web application and then double clicking on the meeting.

By default, TimeBridge is set to automatically confirm the final meeting time after attendees have responded (assuming that at least one time slot worked for all attendees). The TimeBridge Assistant will pick the best time, based on preferences expressed by attendees.

You have an option to turn off the auto-confirmation mode. To turn this off, uncheck the box "TimeBridge should automatically confirm the meeting time" in the Meeting Options tab of your new meeting invitation before sending.

In this mode, you will have to manually pick the final meeting time yourself. You can do this before or after all of the attendees have responded. If you forget to pick the final confirmation time, the TimeBridge Assistant will remind you in an email notification.

TimeBridge has a "reschedule" feature that you can use when you have a confirmed meeting time that you'd like to change by selecting a new set of proposed meeting times. The Reschedule feature allows you to restart the invitation process, but without having to re-enter the meeting attendees, topic, or message. You'll only have select a new set of proposed times. Your attendees will receive an updated invitation to the existing meeting.

To reschedule a meeting, go the Meeting Room of a meeting that has been confirmed (including canceled or expired meetings). Click the "Scheduling Helper" button, then select the Reschedule Meeting option. A new meeting form will open, pre-filled with your existing meeting attendees, topic, and message. You can edit this information or click to propose a new set of meeting times. Once you are done, send out the updated meeting invitation.

If the meeting is still in Proposed state, you cannot "reschedule" the meeting. Instead, you can propose new times. If you previously selected five proposed times, you'll have to remove an existing proposed time in order to add a new time. When you update the proposed times, the attendees will automatically get an email asking them to submit their availability for the new times.

Both features allow you to update a meeting that has already been confirmed. When you Reschedule the meeting, you're sending out an updated invitation with new proposed times to all of the attendees. This means that they will have to submit their availability for the new time slots. This is useful when you're not sure what times will work for the attendees.

When you Change Confirmed Time, you are picking a new final time for the meeting. Attendees will not be asked to submit their availability for the new confirmed time. This feature is useful when don't need attendees to submit availability all over again (e.g., you already have verbal feedback that a new time will work for everyone). Attendees will receive an email notification of the new time, but they won't need to submit responses.

When the meeting is already confirmed and you want to pick a new confirmed time for the meeting, you can use the Change Confirmed Time feature. To change the confirmed time, go the Meeting Room of a confirmed meeting. Click the Meeting Schedule Options button and select Change Confirmed Time.

A new popup will open that will allow you pick a new time that was one of the original proposed times. This is useful to see the previous availability responses (e.g., there may have been other time slots that were acceptable to the attendees). To pick one of these times, click the button at the top of the time column and then click the Confirm Meeting Time button.

If you'd like to pick an all-new confirmed time (i.e., one that you didn't previously propose), you can click the Select New Time button located below the time columns. This will open the calendar so you can select the new meeting time. On the calendar, select the new time, then click the Done button. You'll be able to confirm the change and enter comments before you submit the change.

By default, the attendees will get an email notification of the new meeting time. Please note that attendees will not be asked to submit their preferences — you have selected a new final meeting time. If you'd like attendees to submit preferences before finalizing the time, you should use the Reschedule meeting feature instead.

You can delete a meeting if you want to remove the meeting from the TimeBridge servers. This will remove the meeting and all details (attendees, topic, message, etc.) from TimeBridge. If an attendee clicks a link that leads to a deleted meeting, they'll get a message that the meeting is no longer available.

You can delete a meeting if the following criteria are met:

• You are the organizer of the meeting
• The meeting is canceled, completed, or expired

If these criteria are met, you'll see a checkbox next to the meeting on the My Meetings page. If the meeting is still in proposed or confirmed state, and you want to delete the meeting, you'll have to cancel the meeting first.

If you are an organizer, you can remove an attendee from a meeting at any time. You might use this feature if someone has told you that they can't make it and you want to have the meeting anyway (removing the attendee will allow the auto-confirmation to proceed).

To do this, go to the Meeting Room for the meeting in question (you can get there by clicking on My Meetings from the Outlook toolbar or the link in the web application). Select attendees you want to remove and click the Remove Attendees button.

When you remove an attendee, they will automatically get an email notification that their participation is no longer required for the meeting.

When you create an invitation for a meeting, TimeBridge automatically adds tentative appointments on your Outlook calendar for the times that you proposed. Some users find it convenient to give the tentative appointments a different color, so they are easy to see on your calendar (e.g., you can make them orange instead of white).

Outlook provides a way to automatically color these appointments:

For Outlook 2003:

1. In the Outlook Calendar menu bar, go to View > Arrange By > Current View > Customize Current View.
2. Click on Automatic Formatting button.
3. Click on Add; enter a name for the new rule (e.g., "TimeBridge Tentative").
4. Select a Label, which will determine the color (e.g., selecting "Phone Call" will give the appointments a yellow-orange color). Don't worry about what the label is called — we're just using it for the color.
5. Click on the Condition button. This will take you to the Appointments and Meetings tab.
6. On this tab, enter "[TB]" (without quotes) in the Search for Words field. The field for In should remain as "subject field only".
7. Click on the Advanced tab.
8. Click on Field drop down.
9. Click on Frequently Used drop down option.
10. Select "Show Time As", then add the following criteria: equals Tentative.
11. Click on the Add to List button.
12. Click the OK button, then OK, then OK to go back to your calendar.

For Outlook 2007:

1. In the Outlook Calendar menu bar, go to View > Current View > Customize Current View.
2. Click on Automatic Formatting button.
3. Click on Add; enter a name for the new rule (e.g., "TimeBridge Tentative").
4. Select a Color that you want to use to show the events.
5. Click on the Condition button. This will take you to the Appointments and Meetings tab.
6. On this tab, enter "[TB]" (without quotes) in the Search for Words field. The field for In should remain as "subject field only".
7. Click on the Advanced tab.
8. Click on Field drop down.
9. Click on Frequently Used drop down option.
10. Select "Show Time As". Then fill in the details — Condition should be "equals" and Value should be "Tentative".
11. Click on the Add to List button.
12. Click the OK button, then OK, then OK to go back to your calendar.

Keep in mind that once your meeting is confirmed, the tentatives will go away and the final meeting time will remain on your calendar. At this point, it will not longer be "tentative", so it will have the default color that Outlook uses, not the new color you just assigned.

Yes! Adding a browser button for TimeBridge will give you easy way to create new meeting invitations.

For Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari: 

1. Right-click this link TimeBridge New Meeting
2. Select "Bookmark this Link"
3. Select the "Bookmarks Toolbar" folder

Users that have not connected their calendars will see a "Download to Calendar" link for confirmed meetings — the link will show up on the Meeting Room and in the email confirmation for the meeting. We provide special downloads depending on what calendar system you use.

Although Entourage is not listed as a download option, it will still work — the issue is that on most Apple computers, the default calendar application is set to Apple iCal. If you use Entourage, you'll want to change the default calendar from Apple iCal to Entourage.

Instructions for Mac OS X 10.2.x and later: 

1. Click the Download to Calendar link in TimeBridge.
2. On the web page, you'll see a list of calendar options. Click the Microsoft Outlook option. This will start the process of downloading an .ics file to your desktop.
   If you use Safari browser, it will download the file right away and it might open up Apple iCal. This is because Apple iCal is the default application (but we'll change that below). Just close Apple iCal if it opens up.
   If you use Firefox, it might ask you to Save or Open the file. You should choose "Save" and just remember where you saved the file.
3. Using Finder, go to location of the .ics file that you just saved (in most cases, it will be saved to your Desktop, unless you changed the location). Single-click the file (don't double-click it yet).
4. From the File menu, select Get Info.
5. In the Info window, click the triangle next to "Open with:" to expand that section of the window.
6. From the pull-down menu that appears, select the application you wish to use to open the file (in this case, the user should select Entourage).
7. If you would like to change the application to open all similar file types, click the Change All button. You will see a confirmation dialog box asking if this is really what you want to do. Click Continue.
8. Close the Get Info box and double-click the .ics file. It should open up Entourage and pre-fill an appointment form. Just save and close the panel. That's it.

The good news is that you should only have to do this once. Your computer should now use Entourage as your default calendar.

TimeBridge has built-in support for time zones — times are converted so each person sees them in their own time zone. In general, when you send a meeting invitation to an attendee, the time zone listed in the email invitation will show the attendee's timezone. As the attendee responds and interacts with TimeBridge, all times will be shown in their own time zone. This also applies to availability sharing — you will see availability of others in your own time zone.

This experience is a little different for first-time users, since TimeBridge won't yet know their timezone. In the case of a first-time attendee, the actual email invitation will show the proposed meeting times in the Organizer's timezone, but the timezone will be clearly labeled.

When the first-time attendee clicks the link to Reply, a web page will open. At that time, TimeBridge will adjust the timezone to match their real timezone (TimeBridge detects the user's time zone based on their computer's settings). As the attendee responds to the meeting invitation, they will see their timezone listed on the response web page. This process is usually very accurate, but the attendee can change their timezone on the response page if it is not accurate. At this point, TimeBridge will remember the attendee's timezone and will present all future invitations in the correct timezone.

TimeBridge will be integrating a variety of useful meeting-related services, including web conferencing. Currently, the web conference feature will take you to one of our partners that provides a full web conference solution. In the future, we'll be integrating this functionality much more deeply into the TimeBridge web application.

If you have ideas on how you'd like this to work, or if you want to suggest other services you'd like to see integrated, please let us know by sending an email to support@timebridge.com.

TimeBridge has integrated free conference call numbers into our service. This provides you with a group dial-in number that everyone can use for your meeting.

Using this feature is easy. The next time you schedule a meeting, click the “Add free conference call number” button in the location field. TimeBridge will immediately insert a conference call number and access code into the location field. All attendees will get this information as you send out the meeting invitation.

The feature is very flexible — you can add the conference call information even if the meeting has multiple proposed times and is not yet finalized. To keep things simple, all attendees will use the same access code. When it is time for the meeting, everyone will dial-in and join the call – there is no complicated setup or activation required.

The next time you create a meeting, just click the button again and you’ll get another conference call number. There is no limit to how many times you can use the feature and you don’t have to remember the number — TimeBridge will add a new number when you use the feature again.

Note that this is not a 1-800 number, so there might be normal toll charges associated with each person’s call if they are calling from a different area code.

You have full access to conference call features once you are on the call. Just enter the touch tone commands listed below (don’t forget to click the * key before each command).

Participant commands:

The participants will enter the access code followed by the # pound sign.

*3	Exit the call
*4	Get conference instructions
*6	Toggle mute/un-mute

Host commands:

As a host, you should enter the access code followed by an * asterisk.

*2	Get a count of the people dialed in to the call
*3	Exit the call
*4	Get a count of the people dialed in to the call
*5	Turn on “Listen only” modes (the call starts in open conversation mode where all callers can speak) — Enter *5 to put the call in audience mute mode, but allows the callers to un-mute themselves when they have a question Enter *5 again to put the call in audience mute mode, but without the ability for participants to un-mute themselves Enter *5 again to bring the call back to open conversation mode
*6	Mute/un-mute yourself
*7	Block additional callers from joining; enter *7 again to unblock the call
*8	Control Entry and Exit tones (the default setting is Entry and Exit tones turned On) — Enter *8 once to turn Off the Entry and Exit tones Enter *8 again to keep Entry tone Off, but turning On Exit tones Enter *8 again to turn On Entry tones, but turning Off Exit tones Enter *8 again to return to the default setting

Yes. If you upgrade to a premium TimeBridge account, you will be assigned a permanent dial-in number and access code that you can use anytime.

Currently, you can connect TimeBridge to Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCal. We're working on supporting more calendars. Feel free to send us feedback if there is a specific calendar you want us to support.

Keep in mind that you can still schedule meetings with people that don't use Google Calendar, Outlook or iCal. Once the meeting is confirmed, the attendee will get an email with a link to download the event to their calendar. The "download event" feature works with many calendars (e.g., Outlook, Google, Yahoo Calendar, etc.)

Users that "connect" their calendars get many additional benefits over the "download" functionality. If you have connected your calendar, TimeBridge will automatically update your calendar as meetings are proposed, confirmed, canceled, changed, etc. Connecting your calendar will also allow you to share your availability with others even if they work for different companies and use different calendar applications. See the other help topics to learn more.

You can connect your existing calendar and contacts to TimeBridge to save yourself time. There are a number of benefits: 

• You can see your existing schedule when you create new TimeBridge invitations or respond to invitations from other people.
• TimeBridge can automatically add meetings to your calendar and also update the meeting times and locations when changes occur.
• Your contacts will automatically appear when you type email addresses or names of attendees on the new meeting form.
• Enables you to share your availability with other people across companies and calendar systems.

Currently, you can connect your Outlook, Google or iCal calendar and contacts to TimeBridge: 

• To connect your calendar and contacts, log into TimeBridge and go to My Account > Connect your Calendar.
• To connect to Outlook, you will install a small connector for Outlook.
• To connect to iCal, you will install a small connector for Mac.
• To connect to Google, you will have to provide your Google username and password.

If you have connected your calendar to TimeBridge, we will automatically sync your TimeBridge meetings to your calendar at least every 15 minutes. The connector may sync more frequently than 15 minutes if you make changes to TimeBridge meetings that require updates.

The sync process is very light — only TimeBridge meetings are sync'd to your calendar and we sync only the meetings that require updates.

If you are connected to Outlook or iCal, you can sync with TimeBridge at any time. Simply right-click on the system tray icon and click the "Sync with TimeBridge Now" option. In most cases, your calendar will already be updated and this option will not be necessary.

We sync only your TimeBridge meetings to your calendar. We do not sync or upload your non-TimeBridge meetings.

The most common sync activity is to add new TimeBridge meetings to your calendar. We'll also update TimeBridge meetings on your calendar if they have changed (e.g., if a new location was added). With TimeBridge, you don't have to worry about forgetting to update your calendar — we do it for you!

Note: If you are connected to Outlook and you share your availability, TimeBridge will also sync your availability information. Please see the Personal Availability Network section for more details.

Google has a default calendar that exists when you create your Google Calendar account, but Google also provides the ability to created additional calendars that you can view as overlays. TimeBridge will display all your active Google calendars in the scheduler. You will be able to specify which calendars you would like use for publishing your availability. Go to My Settings/Calendar Settings to make any changes.

TimeBridge will periodically create new versions of the Outlook connector that introduce new features and fix bugs. When we release a new version, we'll automatically tell you. You'll get a notification and you can install it at that time.

At any time, you can also right-click on the system tray icon and click on the Check for Updates option. This will check to see if you are using the latest version of the Outlook connector. If you are not running the latest connector, you will get a notification that allows you to start the upgrade process.

If you have connected your Outlook, iCal or Google calendar to TimeBridge, you can disconnect at any time. If you disconnect your calendar, you will no longer be able to see your existing schedule when you create new meetings or respond to meeting invitations from others.

To disconnect your Outlook and iCal calendar and contacts, you'll have to uninstall the TimeBridge Connector. To disconnect your Google calendar and contacts, go to My Account > Connect your Calendar and click the Disconnect your Calendar link.

When you disconnect your calendar, your existing TimeBridge meetings will remain on your calendar, but no further updates will be made automatically.

Currently, we do not recommend running the TimeBridge Connector on multiple computers that use Outlook for the same email account and calendar. We expect to support this in the future.

The TimeBridge Connector integrates with Outlook — with or without Exchange. The Connector integrates with your calendar, automatically adding to and modifying your calendar as your meetings are created, changed, or canceled. No special integration with your Exchange server is needed.

But TimeBridge can further improve your scheduling experience if your company uses Exchange. Exchange can allow users to share availability information when they work within the same company. With TimeBridge and Exchange, you can make sure your colleagues inside the company are all available as you propose times to outside attendees.

Well, it depends. We support some actions, but we plan to support much more in the future.

In general, we recommend that go to the TimeBridge website to make changes to the meetings. This is best way to know if your change has been successful.

Here's what happens when you perform certain actions directly in your Outlook, iCal or Google calendar:

Delete confirmed TimeBridge event (as an organizer or attendee)

Currently, if you delete a confirmed TimeBridge meeting directly in your Outlook iCal or Google calendar, TimeBridge marks you as a "No" for that time slot in TimeBridge. The meeting will be removed from your Outlook, iCal or Google calendar permanently.

If you are the organizer, please note that we do not cancel the meeting. This is to allow the meeting to continue even if you can no longer make the meeting. If you are the organizer and you want to cancel the meeting, please make this change on the TimeBridge website.

If you are an attendee and you delete the meeting, the organizer will get an email notifying them that you have changed your availability and can no longer make the meeting.

Delete tentative TimeBridge event (as an organizer or attendee)

Same as above — if you delete a tentative TimeBridge directly in your Outlook, iCal or Google, TimeBridge marks you as a "No" for that time slot in TimeBridge. The meeting will be removed from your Outlook, iCal or Google calendar permanently.

Moving (drag/drop) of TimeBridge event (as organizer or attendee)

We don't currently support this action directly in your Outlook, iCal or Google calendar. If you move a TimeBridge event to a new time in your Outlook , iCal or Google Calendar, TimeBridge will put the event back to the original position upon the next sync. We plan to improve this support in the future.

In the meantime, if you are the organizer, you can change a proposed time or confirmed meeting time by making the change on the TimeBridge website. To make this change, go to the Meeting Room for the meeting and follow these steps: 

If the meeting is proposed, click the View / Modify Proposed Times button. This will open the TimeBridge scheduler, where you can add / delete / move the existing proposed times as needed. When you save the change, TimeBridge will give you the option to send a message to the attendees.

If the meeting is confirmed, go to the Meeting Room and click on the Meeting Schedule Options button. You have two options: 

• Choose the option Change Confirmed Time if you intend to change only the meeting time and you don't need to ask your attendees if they can make it (e.g., you already have verbal agreement for the new time).
• You can click Reschedule Meeting if you want to suggest all new times and send a new invitation to attendees. This will give them a chance to say Best / Yes / No to all of the time slots before the meeting is confirmed.

If you are not the organizer of the meeting, you cannot change the meeting times — please contact the organizer directly to suggest a change.

Add or change location of TimeBridge event (as organizer or attendee)

We don't currently support this action in Outlook, iCal or Google calendars. If you add or change the location directly in your Outlook , iCal or Google calendar, TimeBridge will reverse this change upon the next sync. We plan to improve this support in the future.

In the meantime, if you are the organizer, you can change the location of the meeting directly on the TimeBridge website. Go to the Meeting Room for the meeting and click the Edit Meeting Info button. You can change the location or meeting topic with the option of sending a notice to the attendees.

With TimeBridge, you can share your availability with people across companies and calendar systems. When you share your availability, the people you choose will be able to see when you are free and busy. This makes it easy for them to schedule meetings with you.

People in your personal availability network will not see the details of your calendar - only when you are free or busy. Your "availability" is based on your existing calendar. This maintains your privacy - no one knows where you are meeting or what your meeting is about.

If you have been given access to another person's availability, you can see it when you create a new TimeBridge meeting. Simply add the person in the To field of your TimeBridge invitation. When you open up the calendar to select proposed times, you will see gray blocks to indicate that person is already busy at that time. If you have invited multiple people, you can hover over the gray block to see which person is the one that is busy at that time.

To see a full list of who is in your Availability Network, click on My Network at the top of the web page. You can see who has shared availability with you, and also who you have shared availability with.

Note that sharing is not automatically both directions. If you share availability with someone, it doesn't mean that you can also see their availability. The other person will have to share with you for you to see their availability when you schedule new meetings. TimeBridge allows you to "request" availability from others — see help topics below.

With TimeBridge, your availability network includes 1) people that you are sharing availability with and 2) people that are sharing availability with you. When you "Build Your Network", you get a choice to Share or Request availability. You decide based on your scheduling needs and your relationship with the other person.

If you want to let others see your availability when they schedule meetings, you'll want to "Share" availability with them. Sharing your availability will save you time since others will invite you to meetings when you're not already busy.

If you want to see someone else's availability when you schedule meetings with them, you'll want to "Request" availability from them. Once someone else shares their availability with you, you'll be able to see their availability when select proposed meeting times in the TimeBridge scheduler.

TimeBridge is a little different from typical social networks — sharing does not automatically work in both directions. If you share your availability with someone, it does not automatically mean that they are sharing back with you. We encourage people to share in both directions, but there are cases where some people will choose not to share for privacy or technical reasons.

We recommend that you share your availability with others so that they get a chance to see that it is a very safe and convenient way to share their availability. Based on that experience, we expect that many people will share back with you.

Yes. TimeBridge allows you to request availability from other people. This will help you when you schedule meetings with that person — you'll be able to see their availability info when you select proposed meeting times on the TimeBridge scheduler.

There are several places you can "request" availability in TimeBridge. The easiest way is integrated with the existing process of creating a new meeting invitation. When opening the TimeBridge scheduler to select proposed times, you'll see a list of the attendees in the upper left hand corner. Any attendee that hasn't yet shared availability with you will have an icon with a plus "+" sign next to it. Clicking that icon is a shortcut to sending out a "request" for availability to that person.

You can also request availability at any time on the My Network page (there is a "My Network" link at the top of every TimeBridge page). On that page, you'll see a list of people in your network. There are a couple of ways to request availability on this page:

• If the person is already in your network, you can see if they are already sharing with you. If there is a "No" in the column "Can I see their availability?", you can click the Request Availability button to start the request process.
• If the person is not already in your network, you can click the Build Your Network button. Then, choose "Request" to start the process.

In both cases, the process is easy — you'll enter the person's email address and a message to the person. Then TimeBridge will send that person an email with instructions on how to share their availability with you.

Once the other person shares their availability with you, you'll get an email notification. At that point, you can see their availability when scheduling meetings with them listed as an attendee.

Just keep in mind that some people will choose not to share availability for privacy or technical reasons. In that case, we recommend you share your availability with them so they can see how safe and convenient it is to share availability.

No. Any registered user can "request" availability from someone else. TimeBridge has made it very easy to request and see someone else's availability — you do not have to connect your calendar.

However, if you want to "share" availability with someone, you do have to connect your calendar. This is necessary because TimeBridge needs access to your calendar in order to share your availability.

TimeBridge provides full control over the sharing process. You choose who you share with, and you can disable sharing at any time.

In addition, you aren't sharing details with other people. They can see when you are busy, but they won't know where you are meeting or what your meeting is about. This is a safe way to improve the scheduling process without revealing too much information.

There are two aspects of availability sharing:

You sharing with others (outbound)

When you share your availability, you are sharing limited visibility into your existing schedule. To do this, you have to "connect" your calendar to TimeBridge. This allows you to share availability with people across companies, calendar systems and time zones. TimeBridge gives you full control over this process — you can disable sharing at any time.

Currently, you can connect your Outlook 2003 / 2007, iCal or Google calendar to TimeBridge. To connect with Outlook or iCal you have to download and install the appropriate Connector. Don't worry — it's a plugin that's fast and easy to install. The process of connecting with your Google Calendar is even easier — just provide your Google Calendar ID and password and the connection is immediate (no download required)

Other people sharing with you (inbound)

If someone has shared their availability with you, you can view this information without connecting your calendar. To view their availability, simply create a new TimeBridge meeting invitation. Add the person to the To field. When you open the calendar to select proposed times, you will see their availability. The times when they are busy will be shown as gray blocks on the calendar.

This means that you can share your availability with anyone — they won't need to download any software to see your availability. You don't even have to worry about what calendar system they use since they will view the information on the TimeBridge website.

To summarize, anyone can view availability of others without connecting their calendar (assuming someone has shared with them). But to share with others, you have to connect your calendar first.

To share your availability with others, you must already have connected your calendar. To learn more about this process, go to My Settings > Calendar Settings.

Once you are connected, the process is very easy. Click on the Share My Availability button on the TimeBridge homepage. Enter the email address of the person you want to share with and enter a personal note to that person. TimeBridge will send the user an email explaining how it all works. People you share availability with will be listed on the Availability Network page. At any time, you can disable sharing with that person. This page will also show you who has shared availability information with you.

TimeBridge works with Microsoft Exchange if you have connected your Outlook calendar with TimeBridge. When you schedule a TimeBridge meeting, you can add any email address in the To field. If you add someone that is on your Exchange server, you will automatically see their availability when you propose meeting times on the TimeBridge calendar. This enables you to combine Exchange with the convenience of the TimeBridge scheduling features.

Now here's the exciting part — in many cases, you'll want to share availability with people outside of your company that are not on your Exchange server. TimeBridge allows you to share your availability with people across companies, calendar systems, and time zones. This also works the other way around — people in other companies can share their availability with you, too.

When you share your availability with others, the timeframe depends on which calendar you use:

Outlook or Apple iCal:

If you have connected TimeBridge to Outlook or Apple iCal, you are sharing 7 weeks of availability. That means when your colleagues view your availability, they can see 7 weeks of availability information. It is a rolling 7 weeks, so your colleagues can always see 7 weeks of availability, no matter when they check.

Google Calendar:

If you have connected to Google Calendar, there is no limit. Your colleagues can see your availability scheduled anytime in the future (e.g., if you have a meeting in 6 months, they’ll see you are busy at that time).

If someone has already shared their availability with you, the process is very easy. Simply schedule a new TimeBridge meeting and add the person in the To field on the invitation. When you propose meeting times on the TimeBridge calendar, you will automatically see when that person is free or busy.

If they are busy, you will see gray blocks on the calendar for those times. If you invite multiple people that have shared availability with you, you can hover over the gray blocks and you'll get a hover layer that explains which person is busy for that time.

You can use this as a guideline to select proposed times. It's just a guideline - you can still propose meeting times if a person is shown as busy at that time. The attendee will still get to respond yes/best/no when they get the TimeBridge meeting invitation.

At any time, you can stop sharing availability information with others. You can do this in two ways: 

Disable sharing with everyone (global)

At the top of the Availability Network page, there is a Disable Sharing button that shows if you are currently sharing your availability with others. You can click this button to disable sharing with everyone.

This takes effect immediately. If someone schedules a TimeBridge meeting with you, they will not see your availability information on TimeBridge. TimeBridge does not automatically send a notification to others when you disable sharing.

You can turn this back on at any time. To resume sharing, go back to the Availability Network page and click the Enable Sharing button.

Disable sharing with selected people (individual)

If you want to disable sharing with selected individuals, go to the Availability Sharing page. In My Network, you will see a list of people. A green circle indicates that you are currently sharing availability with that person. To disable sharing with any of those people, click on the green circle next to the person's name.

This takes effect immediately. TimeBridge does not automatically send a notification to the person when you disable sharing. A white circle next to the person's name indicates that you are not currently sharing availability with that person.

To resume sharing, click on the white circle next to the person's name.

TimeBridge shows you everyone in your Availability Network. This includes people that you've shared availability with, and people who have shared availability with you. To see your network, go to My Availability/ My Network to see the list. Remember, for privacy reasons, sharing availability is not automatically bi-directional. If you share availability with someone, it doesn't mean that you can also see their availability. The other person will have to share with you for you to see their availability when you schedule new meetings.

If you have connected TimeBridge to your Google Calendar, your availability information can be displayed immediately to the people in your network. By using Google's API's, TimeBridge does not have to publish, sync, or store your availability information coming from Google Calendar. With Google, TimeBridge can do a real-time lookup, displaying the most accurate information to people in your network.

If you have connected TimeBridge to your Outlook Calendar, the very first time you share your availability, there may be a delay before Outlook fully syncs your availability information with TimeBridge. For most people, the initial sync takes place in a matter of minutes, but in some cases, it might take up to a few hours before it can be displayed. This is only the initial setup — after this takes place, people in your network can look up your availability at any point in time.

TimeBridge believes it is very important that people in your network can look up your availability information even if you don't have Outlook up and running at all times. To support this, TimeBridge syncs your Outlook availability information to a server that is always available &mash; even if you have closed Outlook. The next time you use Outlook, TimeBridge will sync this data to get any new changes.

Note:  To protect your privacy, TimeBridge does not store the "details" of your non-TimeBridge calendar events (i.e., subject, location, attendees, notes, etc.). Even when you share availability from Outlook, we store only "availability" information and not the "details" of your calendar events.