Automatically Schedule WordPress Posts to Add a Category or Tag

ByRiza Maulana Ardiyanto

Do you know how to automatically modify WordPress posts on a future date? This is not always easy.

Let’s take the example of expiring posts on a future date. Most frequently, WordPress users rely on tedious manual methods to get rid of expired posts. They have to set themselves calendar reminders to log in and click the correct buttons to unpublish posts.

PublishPress Future is a plugin that manages everything automatically so you can relax and let WordPress do the work.

Posts that are no longer valid can be automatically deleted, moved to a new status, or assigned to a new Tag or Category. This makes PublishPress Future a great addition for TaxoPress users. You can move posts between taxonomy terms according to a predesigned schedule.

Some posts, such as contests, certain events, or news, must be broadcast immediately. But the validity period will not last forever. If you want to ensure your website never displays expired articles, use PublishPress Future.

The PublishPress Future Interface

PublishPress Future is available for free from WordPress.org

After you install PublishPress Future, you will get a new option on your right sidebar when you open the post editor. If you want to set your post to expire at specific times, you can check the box that says “Enable Post Expiration”.

Upon doing so, you will see a calendar in which you can set when your post will expire. 

Also, there will be an option where you can set how you’d like your post to expire, whether it will become Draft, Private, Trash, etc.

For TaxoPress users, you might find the Category feature to be particularly interesting. You can choose to Add, Remove, or Replace any Categories. In the example below, we are adding the “Sports” and “News” categories to this post on a future date. Click here to see all the ways you can expire posts.

Features of PublishPress Future

Some of the things you can do with the PublishPress Future plugin include:

  • Setting an expiration date for certain posts to be removed or added to “Draft”.
  • Changing the expiration date quickly and in bulk.
  • Displaying a short code indicating the expiry date of certain content.
  • Getting notified by email when content has reached its expiration date.
  • Showing the expiry date in the post automatically or using a shortcode

There are several options that you can set for certain content so that you don’t have to bother changing the status manually in the future.

  • You can set a specific time, date, month, year, or even hours and minutes for the time your future posts will expire.
  • At the scheduled time, you can set the posts to automatically delete, enter into drafts, or change the status to “Private”.
  • You can enable or disable the “Stay to the Top of Blog” option.
  • You can delete or save predefined options or categories.

Email Notifications from PublishPress Future

When your content is expired, you can choose to receive an email to notify you. You can enable this option on Future > Default setting. Click here for details on PublishPress Future email notifications.

Show the Expiry Date with a Shortcode

For some purposes, you may want visitors to know the expiry date of a post. You can easily set this up with PublishPress Future. The expiration date will be displayed at the bottom or footer of the post as shown below. Click here for more details on the shortcode.

How does the plugin work?

For each post that is set to expire, a custom cron job is scheduled. This plugin REQUIRES that WP-CRON is set up and functional on your server. 

There are some hosting providers that do not support this, so make sure your host is able to handle this. Click here for details on the cron jobs in PublishPress Future.

Conclusion

One way to maintain credibility of your website is to always display posts that are fresh and up-to-date. PublishPress Future helps you set expiration schedules for various content automatically, and by taking control, you can ensure your website displays fresh content every day.

If you have a website that publishes a lot of content, I recommend you check out the PublishPress website. They have various plugins that are extremely helpful in creating a professional publishing website.