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How do I schedule a Wordpress blog post for the future?

I have heard you talk more than once about how you write blog entries and schedule them for future publication so that you can space things out and work ahead, rather than having to create a new blog entry every day. Nice, but how do I do that in Wordpress?


Dave's Answer:

You are exactly right that I create blog posts days or even sometimes weeks in advance. This blog post I am writing at 4:30pm on Monday but it won't actually show up until Wednesday morning, two days later.

Now, I use Movable Type, not Wordpress, but the basic process is the same: you write your blog entry, go back and forth with the preview feature until it's exactly as you desire, then you mark it for publication and, before you push "publish" also indicate when you want it to be published.

Here's how that looks on a blog running Wordpress 2.6...

First off, when you are composing a blog entry you'll see the Publish Status box on the right side:

wordpress publish status unpublished (wp blog post scheduling)

Most blogs are set up so that by default your entries are marked as unpublished, and you have to manually change it to "published":

wordpress publish change status (wp blog post scheduling)

That's something you're probably already doing. What you haven't noticed is that immediately underneath that menu says "Publish Immediately Edit". That's what you want to select. Click "Edit" and...

wordpress publish schedule post (wp blog post scheduling)

Ahhh..... now you can see the secret solution. Just set the date and time you desire, double check your status is "Published", and click "Save".

Hope that helps you work less and blog more!



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Comments

Great info , never new this even though i use wordpress.

Posted by: Steve at September 17, 2008 3:11 PM

Thanks for sharing the info.

Posted by: Sanjeev Mishra at February 20, 2009 10:18 AM

really good tips thanks for the help.

Posted by: Evan Tenner at February 22, 2009 12:24 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

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