Adding products to appear in new products on a certain date

I am currently adding products that I do not want to show up in new products until a particular date. When I enter the product with the advanced date (not the date I'm entering it) it appears in new products anyways. I've had to de-activate all these products so they don't show up.

My question is, even though I've deactivated the product, and have the date entered I want it to appear, will the program automatically activate them on that date, or do I have to manually go in and activate each one. The products are also on sale only in the new products section, of which I already set that up. This is something that I will be having to do every month, so I really need help to save some time.

I searched and searched the forums, faqs etc, but I could not find the answer I was looking for. I did not build the site, though adding the products is my job. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Windows 7 Premium
Version ZenCart 1.3.9c
Thank you so much, Teresa Wheeler
teresa-talisman at verizon.net

Te,
Add the product and then use phpMyAdmin to change the date_added field for that record in the products table.

Thank you, I will try that and see if it works.
I really appreciate the help! If anyone else has ideas, I greatly appreciate those also!
teresa ;)