Quickly Create & Distribute Surveys with Outlook 2007

Creating surveys or voting ballots and collecting the responses can sometimes be a daunting task. Lucky for you, I have found a way to quickly and easily create a balloting or survey generation and collection system. It is through your friendly Office Outlook 2007 interface. Now you can collect information and get feedback from your employees, coworkers, and friends (As long as they are also using the Outlook 2007 client).

Microsoft has provided a new voting feature via email. It uses the updated Office Fluent interface with 'voting buttons' inserted in email. This allows you to distribute your survey or ballot to your target audience simply and easily via email. You will also receive the responses the same way. The steps below describe the steps to create the voting buttons within your message:

1. Create a new message in Outlook, or reply to an existing message with the purpose of your survey or vote present in the Subject or Message Body
   
2. On the Options tab -> Under the Tracking section -> Click Use Voting Buttons
   
3. Select the option you prefer for your response [For additional message options, click Custom]
   

Once you send the emails, your recipients will see a new button in their email that displays 'Vote' with the responses present as a drop-down when they click. Once they select their response, they will receive a dialog that asks if they would like to either send or edit their response. Once they do so, the response is relayed back to you, the sender.

[Screenshots below]