Show Optional or CC Field in Outlook Meeting Request

Question

I would like to quickly add Optional meeting attendees to a new Outlook meeting.

I am trying to create a meeting with Alice and Bob as required attendees, but Steve is optional. There is no field to quickly enter optional attendees:

When a new meeting is being created and names are entered into the To... field, they are Required attendees by default.

For composing emails, it is possible to display To, CC, and BCC fields all at once. There is a Show Fields portion of the ribbon to hide or display the BCC field:

I'm looking for a option to Show Fields, Optional for creating a new meeting, but it appears there is no such option.

If I enter the names into the field and then click the To... button, I can then move individuals from Required to Optional, but that process is an extra step.

Is there a way to show the Optional field when creating a new meeting?

I'm using Outlook 2013 on Windows 7.

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Update: I'm now using Office 365 for the web and Office 365 for Windows 10. Both versions that I am using now show the Optional attendees field when creating a new meeting.

Outlook for Office 365 Version 2208

Outlook on the web, retrieved year 2023

Answer 1

The invitation by default put Recipients in To: as the Required attendees. The Recipients in Cc: will be Optional attendees.

You can manage this direction when you create the appointment by clicking the Address Book on the ribbon and what you have to do is to copy all names in Cc: and paste them in To:

Hope this helps.