diff --git a/modules/node/node.pages.inc b/modules/node/node.pages.inc
index 49e93cbb228aa77f43c154c254ed45925ef69a06..0de4e9c9146c30f92ba907cbe59007d1497f92bc 100644
--- a/modules/node/node.pages.inc
+++ b/modules/node/node.pages.inc
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ function node_form(&$form_state, $node) {
     '#type' => 'textfield',
     '#title' => t('Authored on'),
     '#maxlength' => 25,
-    '#description' => t('Format: %time. Leave blank to use the time of form submission.', array('%time' => !empty($node->date) ? $node->date : format_date($node->created, 'custom', 'Y-m-d H:i:s O'))),
+    '#description' => t('Format: %time. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD and %timezone is the timezone offset from UTC. Leave blank to use the time of form submission.', array('%time' => !empty($node->date) ? $node->date : format_date($node->created, 'custom', 'Y-m-d H:i:s O'), '%timezone' => !empty($node->date) ? $node->date : format_date($node->created, 'custom', 'O'))),
   );
 
   if (isset($node->date)) {