Is it possible to make a page's publishing schedule mandatory?

Question

As opposed to a page just being published as soon as it's approved - I need to make the schedule (the setting of the start and expiry date) of the publishing mandatory. Can it be done?

Answer 1

If you're using SharePoint 2010 you can use List validation:

• Make sure your Page layouts include "Scheduling Start Date"
• Go to the Pages library
• Select List settings in the Library tab of the Ribbon
• Select Validation Settings
• Enter a formular like =[Scheduling Start Date]>TODAY()
• Enter an appropriate user message like "Page must be scheduled into the future"

As this probably needs to be done on multiple sites it could be a good idea to put it into a Feature which is included in/stapled onto the Site definition

Answer 2

You need to enable versioning in the Pages Document library . More info on this Link