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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Changing the Date for a Post

This article is about how to change the date of a post in Blogger.  It looks at where the date value is found, and what format is used to display and edit it.


Each Post (not but each Page) that you create in Blogger has a date and time associated with it.   To find out what it is:
  • You can see the date (but not the time) in the Posts tab.



  • And, you can see the date and time in the Post Editor, in the Published on link (in the right-hand side-bar


How to set the post date (date/time) value for a blogger post

Open the Post in the Post Editor


Click the Post Options link, which is near the bottom left of the page above the Publish button (old interface) or the Published on link (in the right-hand sidebar in the new interface):

This opens up the window to show various options that apply to the post.   The date-time is on the right.

Initially, the date-time is set to Automatic:  the post will be given a date-time when the Publish Post button is clicked for the first time.

Tick the Published on,area which lets you edit the date., by showing a calendar to pick the date from, like this:


To set the date for a long time in the past, you can just type in the correct values, rathe rthna having to page backwards month-by-month using the arrows.


Why set the date?

You may want to set the date if you are giving your blog a home page, or if you want to schedule a post to go live at some time in the future.


Is any other date information kept in Blogger?

You can work out the month and year when a post was first published by looking at its URL: this contains the original publication month and year.  For example, the URL of this post is
http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2009/12/changing-date-for-post.html

The bolded bit says that it was originally published in December (ie the 12th month) of 2009.   This URL is kept even if I change the values in "Post Date and Time"   (which I'm just about to do, to show when the article was last updated).

I think it's likely that Blogger also stores the exact publication date and time somewhere too (at least, to help them resolve DMCA copyright complaints), but don't know any way to access this.


Related Articles

The difference between Posts and Pages

Giving your blog a home page

Making one post always come up first

Taking action when someone has copied your blog

14 comments:

  1. Nisar Ibrahim SidaJanuary 16, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Nice tips, thank u v much

    ReplyDelete
  2. David ChinMarch 22, 2011 at 2:50 AM

    There is another option. Publish the post, edit the date to a future date. You now have a sticky post which will stay on top, until the future date.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mother o'blogMay 22, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    Sorry, but what a load of baloney. Unfortunately the blogger layout you are referring to is old and I was looking for something I can use today. Your post seems to be from Feb 2012. So I assume I have not clicked on an "od" trick.

    My date goes back to 1999 and to be honest that's a lot of clicks to get there … any idea how to enter a way-back-year into the blogger layout of 2012? I'd appreciate it. thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MaryMay 22, 2012 at 10:41 PM

      If you read the article again, you'll find that I have explained the procedures for both the old and new interfaces. What's more, as at today, you can use the old interface by selecting it from the gear wheel in the top right hand corner of the screen.

      Delete
  4. Jane SpeareJune 30, 2012 at 3:55 PM

    Okay I have set the date and everything, for about a week from now, when I'm supposed to have it appear. But now for my draft I'm done with, do I click *publish*? And it won't actually publish until the specified date? It's a book cover reveal so I can't really experiment.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MaryJuly 4, 2012 at 6:51 PM

      Why don't you try testing the feature in a private blog? (ref: http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/get-your-posts-right-before-you-publish.html)

      That said, in your situation, I would probably just hold off pressing Publish until the right day anyway, just in case.

      Good luck with the book.

      Delete
  5. Neal McLainJuly 11, 2012 at 11:35 PM

    I have been trying to set the date to an earlier date (two years ago) to get posts in logical order. Every time I set the date, it appears to work, but when I click "update" the date doesn't change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MaryJuly 16, 2012 at 11:33 PM

      Yes, I've noticed that too. I think there's a bug in the new interface at the moment. For now, I've just been going back to the old interface to change the date. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

      Delete
  6. Sekji AniAugust 15, 2012 at 11:42 PM

    Great post. You just saved my time sensitive project blog. I was looking to export a page/post and reclicked publish instead of just canceling. It deleted the old post and posted it currently, which of course was useless to the blog. I followed your steps and figured out how to redo the date so it shows back up where it should. Stacy

    ReplyDelete
  7. AbberatiaOctober 8, 2012 at 4:52 PM

    Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete
  8. derksjMay 30, 2013 at 9:43 AM

    is there a way i can change multiple dates at once?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Elizabeth FarrarNovember 16, 2013 at 1:00 AM

    Is it possible to eliminate the dates from the url altogether?

    ReplyDelete