Are there any shortcut keys for responding to meeting requests in MS Office Outlook 2010?

Question

I am quite proficient with the keyboard and try to only use the mouse when necessary. Given that context I was very familiar with the shortcut keys in MS Outlook 2003 and never needed to use the mouse to use that product. Now my company has recently upgraded to MS Outlook 2010 and I am finding it impossible to operate it without having to use the mouse. In particular replying to meeting requests with the old shortcut keys no longer seems possible.

I have held down the ALT key and sometimes it shows some shortcuts on the ribbon but this seems to be limited to ALT+H which tends to alternate between designating "Accept" and "Tentative" without any keys for the other options. Also as this appears to switch between "Accept" and "Tentative" one can't even use this consistently without first having to check what it means for each particular instance.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I just gave pressing ALT+H a try and lo and behold it led to the next level of shortcut keys which then let me select different options for Accept, Tentative and Decline. Although this does mean I have to press a few more keystrokes than in Outlook 2003, this is an acceptable solution for me.

It looks like the ALT+H key was actually for selecting the ribbon tab to move to and then likewise for the next level of buttons etc... . When I had noticed previously that the ALT+H appeared to refer to different buttons, this must have been due to unfortunate button placement which made it look like it was associated with a different button.

Answer 2

1. Hit Enter (to open the calendar request)
2. Hit Alt+H (home menu), then C (Accept the request), then S (send the response now)

Answer 3

Another option if you have the context menu key on your keyboard, is to press it whilst highlighting an email, press down three times, then enter, then enter again to get past the final menu.