Publish and Schedule Changelog Entries

Learn how to publish now, backdate entries, schedule future changelog posts in browser-local time, and manage subscriber alerts in ChangeCrab.

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Publish and Schedule Changelog Entries

Learn how to publish changelog entries immediately, backdate retrospective updates, schedule future releases, and decide whether subscribers should be alerted.

Publishing Options

ChangeCrab offers three publishing paths:

  • Publish now - Make the entry live immediately using the current time
  • Save as Draft - Keep it private until ready
  • Post scheduling - Set a past or future publish time on Premium and active trial accounts

Publishing Immediately

Publishing immediately is available on all plans. To publish an entry right away:

  1. Create or edit your entry
  2. Ensure all content is complete
  3. Leave the publish time blank
  4. Click "Publish"
  5. The entry becomes visible on your public changelog immediately

Post Scheduling

Post scheduling is available on Premium plans and active trials. It covers both retrospective posts and future scheduled posts.

  • Retrospective posts - Choose a past publish time when you want the entry to appear in your changelog history on an earlier date. Subscriber alerts are disabled for backdated posts.
  • Scheduled posts - Choose a future publish time when you want the entry to stay pending until that moment. Scheduled posts are shown as scheduled in the admin view and are hidden from the public changelog until they are due.
  • Subscriber alert control - For future scheduled posts, the alert toggle is enabled by default. Turn it off if the post should go live silently. Silent scheduled posts still become public automatically at the selected time.

How Times Are Displayed

Publish times in the editor use your browser's local time zone. ChangeCrab stores the scheduled moment consistently, then displays scheduled times in the admin overview using each viewer's browser time zone.

This means teammates in different time zones may see different clock times for the same scheduled post, but the post will go live at the same moment for everyone. Public changelog dates use the selected publish time rather than the time the entry was created.

Schedule a Future Post

To schedule an entry for later:

  1. Create your entry content
  2. Set "Publish time" to a future date and time in your browser's local time zone
  3. Leave "Alert subscribers" enabled if subscribers should be notified when the post goes live
  4. Turn "Alert subscribers" off if the post should publish silently
  5. Click "Publish"
  6. The entry remains scheduled until the selected time, then becomes public automatically

Backdate a Post

To publish a retrospective update:

  1. Create your entry content
  2. Set "Publish time" to a past date and time in your browser's local time zone
  3. Confirm the alert toggle is disabled
  4. Click "Publish"
  5. The entry appears in your changelog using the selected historical date

Draft Entries

Save entries as drafts to work on them later:

  1. Create your entry
  2. Click "Save Draft" instead of "Publish"
  3. The entry is saved but not visible publicly
  4. You can edit and publish it later

Learn more about draft vs published entries.

Best Practices

  • Plan ahead - Schedule entries for release dates
  • Use Drafts - Save incomplete entries as drafts
  • Coordinate releases - Schedule entries to match product launches
  • Review scheduled posts - Check scheduled entries before they go live
  • Backdate carefully - Use retrospective dates for real historical updates, not to hide new information

Next Steps