How to Schedule Slides in Smart Slider 3 for Timed Publishing

Many WordPress users want to control exactly when their slider content appears and disappears. A common request is to have a slide automatically unpublish itself at midnight on a specific day, or to schedule a series of slides to appear throughout a month. This guide explains the capabilities within Smart Slider 3 for managing slide visibility on a schedule.

The Core Issue: Scheduling Slide Visibility

The need to schedule slides often arises for time-sensitive content. Examples include promotional banners for sales, announcements for events, or seasonal content like holiday greetings or snow closures. Users typically look for a way to set a precise date and time for a slide to be published and then later unpublished without any manual intervention.

Available Solutions

The method for scheduling a slide depends on whether you are using the Free or Pro version of Smart Slider 3.

1. Manual Publishing (Free Version)

In the free version of Smart Slider 3, you can manually control a slide's visibility. While this isn't an automated schedule, it allows you to enable or disable a slide without deleting it.

1. Navigate to your slider in the WordPress admin.
2. In the list of slides, find the slide you wish to hide.
3. Click the Unpublish option (often represented by an eye icon with a slash).
4. An unpublished slide will not appear on the front end of your site but remains intact in the editor for you to edit and republish later.

2. Automated Scheduling (Pro Version)

The automated 'Publish up' and 'Publish down' feature is exclusive to the Pro version. This functionality allows you to set specific dates and times for a slide to appear and disappear automatically.

1. Ensure you have the Pro version installed and activated. If you previously had this feature and it disappeared, you may have accidentally activated the Free version. Deactivating and deleting the Free version (your sliders are safe) and then reactivating the Pro version should restore the feature.
2. Edit the slide you want to schedule.
3. Go to the Settings tab of the slide.
4. Look for the Publish on and Unpublish on fields.
5. Set your desired dates and times for the slide to become visible and then hidden.

Note: To make an entire slider disappear at a certain time, you would need to set the unpublish time for every slide within it. If a Smart Slider has no published slides, it will not output any content on the page.

Troubleshooting and Advanced Notes

• Caching: If you are using dynamic slides that pull content from scheduled WordPress posts, be aware that the slider's content cache may not automatically clear when a post is published by a cron job (like a scheduled post). The cache is typically cleared when you manually save the slider or a post. For advanced users, the Smart Slider 3 API provides a method to programmatically clear a project's cache to work around this.
• Feature Availability: Questions specifically about Pro version features, including the scheduler and layers like the Countdown timer, cannot be discussed on the WordPress.org support forums due to its guidelines. For detailed help with these features, consult the official Smart Slider 3 documentation.

By understanding the different methods available in each version, you can effectively plan and execute a content schedule for your sliders.