Publishing pages using the "publish at" property

Umbraco has a feature that allows you to prepare a page for publishing then choose when it will automatically publish itself.

There are two scenarios where you might want to use this feature:

1. A new page that will not need to appear until a certain date (eg embargoed content)
2. A current page that needs to change on a certain date (eg you want a new section to appear)

New page

This is a simple process:

1. Create your page - save but don't publish
2. Open the "Properties" tab and set the "Publish at" date and time for your page to publish
3. Save but don't publish (in fact your page is blocked from publishing as soon as you set a "Publish at" date)
4. Finalise your page, saving as you go
5. When you are happy have a final preview & leave it in place to publish itself at the set date

Current page

The process is exactly as above, except you start at step 2, but before you set the page up in it's new form you need to make sure that any changes that need to be visible before the automated publish date are done and published before you set the "Publish at" date.

"Un-publish" date

Umbraco also offers an "Unpublish at" date for pages where the content may be perishable: articles about Christmas closing or short term promotions.

To use this you need to:

1. Set the "Unpublish at" date
2. Save and publish the page

Note: If you set both dates, the "Publish at" date will obviously be earlier than the "Unpublish at" date & perform action 2 above.