Schedule Future Post in Blogger

I supposed many of us have heard those using Wordpress "boast" about the ability to timestamp posts written to be published at a future date. Those using Blogger service could edit the post timestamp too but it does affect the actual published date. The post will be visible to everyone once you press the button publish post even if you enter a future date.

This is about to change soon. The ability to schedule posts to be published at a future date could be found at Blogger in Draft. In case you are not aware of its existence, this is a place where new features are tested and fine tuned before they are included in Blogger. You login to Blogger in Draft through the URL http://draft.blogger.com instead of the usual http://www.blogger.com. You will get a similar interface with additional features under development and test.

The Changes

This new feature will add a status to the post list called Scheduled. You add posts to the status Scheduled by entering a future date to Post date and time then press the Publish Post button. You will get a message shown in the following figure instead of the usual message.

The following figure illustrates the posts list with this feature. Notice the additional status in the filter. The date shows the date it is scheduled to be published.

Conclusion

This feature is important for those that would like consistent rate of update to their blog. You would not want to adjust your schedule and go nowhere without Internet access just to update your blog consistently.

I have personally tried this feature. It works fine thus far. Having said so, I am not a heavy user looking at the post frequency of Dynamics Ax Associate. You may have your hand on it by logging in to Blogger through Blogger in Draft.

Update - 2008 May 05: This feature is available in Blogger Live since May 1, 2008. No visual changes compared to the test version.