darrinb

Build a better post list.
The Advanced Posts Widget is an enhanced version of the default WordPress Recent Posts widget. It allows for greater customization and stying of your recent content lists.
Make your post lists stand out with this highly customizable recent post widget!
Features
<ul>
<li>Build multiple lists!</li>
<li>Select which post types to display. (You can choose either all types, or a specific type.)</li>
<li>Set the number of posts to show.</li>
<li>Choose how to order your posts: publish date, alphabetically, random, etc.</li>
<li>Set the order for displaying the posts.</li>
<li>Filter by category, tag, or custom taxonomy.</li>
<li>Supports post thumbnails.</li>
<li>Set and preview custom thumbnail sizes, or choose from your site’s registered image sizes.</li>
<li>Show an excerpt of the post.</li>
<li>Set and preview the length of the excerpt.</li>
<li>Select the list format to match your site’s markup. Choose from: <code>ol</code>, <code>ul</code>, or <code>div</code>.</li>
<li>Select the listing format. Choose between <code>html5</code> or <code>xhtml</code>.</li>
<li>Show post date.</li>
<li>Set and preview multiple date formats.</li>
<li>Choose the default (basic) CSS styling or roll your own.</li>
</ul>
Developer Features
This widget was built not only with end-users in mind, but also plugin developers. Almost every aspect of this widget is extensible through filters and action hooks. You can even add your own form fields to the widget form!
<ul>
<li>Need to remove a field from the widget form? Not a problem! Every field is passed through its own filter for easy customization.</li>
<li>Need to modify the output of the widget? Easy! The output is passed through numerous filters, allowing you to customize the post list to meet your project’s requirements.</li>
<li>For a full list of action hooks and filters, please see the plugin documentation: http://darrinb.com/plugins/advanced-posts-widget</li>
</ul>
For sample functions check out this small testing plugin: https://github.com/dboutote/Advanced-Posts-Widget-Testing

Advanced Posts Widget

I tested quite a few different Recent Posts Widgets and they all had bugs or outdated code or lack of flexibility or simple settings for their images and whatnot. This plugin does all the things you need:
* Set your thumbnail size from a list of registered image sizes
* Choose your category
* Choose your post type
* Even works with the Organize Series plugin well
* Order by recency, title, or even random (my favorite)
Combine this with the Display Widgets plugin and you have a powerful and flexible and intuitive sidebar that works great with your theme. 
Well done!



Exactly what my blog needed

A powerful and flexible recent posts widget for WordPress for displaying customized content lists.  Supports all custom post types and taxonomies!

wpcodetips

You can display image slides with title, image, author name, date, description, and read more linked to posts from the selected category. 
You can order these elements as you wish using the drag & drop mechanism. Slides have a sightly animation effect. 
The user may select categories or other taxonomy items. This widget can also display custom post types. 
A number of slides are unlimited and you may specify how many slides you want to be visible in the column.
Please check out our <a href="https://demo.wp-code-tips.com/wpct-drag-drop-recent-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">DEMO</a>.
Configuration (see screenshot of backend):
<ol>
<li>Widget title.</li>
<li>Post type – enter post type name you want to display posts from.</li>
<li>Post type taxonomy – enter post type taxonomy name to restrict the data to display.</li>
<li>Taxonomy – select taxonomy items. You may select specified categories or display items from all categories. Empty taxonomy is not displayed.</li>
<li>Show archive links below items to give a possibility to read more posts from selected categories.</li>
<li>Force display sticky posts – applies to post type only, select if you want to include a sticky post to slides.</li>
<li>Number of items in a row.</li>
<li>Number of rows.</li>
<li>Number of all items – total number of slides.</li>
<li>Show or hide post titles.</li>
<li>Make post title clickable.</li>
<li>Choose header tag for titles.</li>
<li>Creation date – show/hide post creation date, the date format is taken from global settings, display date above or below the title.</li>
<li>Show or hide the author’s name.</li>
<li>Show or hide post taxonomy items (a category name)</li>
<li>Readmore – show/hide read more link.</li>
<li>Order direction (ascending, descending).</li>
<li>Ordering type (date, title, most commented).</li>
<li>Navigation (bullets, none).</li>
<li>Description limit – enter number of chars for each slide description.</li>
<li>Image floating (left, right, none).</li>
<li>Show/hide thumbnail.</li>
<li>Thumbnail clickable – link the image to the full post</li>
<li>Interval in milliseconds for a sliding.</li>
<li>Enable or disable pause on hover.</li>
<li>Image size from WordPress settings (Settings > Media). You can choose: thumbnail, medium, large</li>
<li>Grid spacing – space between items.</li>
<li>Drag and drop to change order of the post elements.</li>
</ol>

WPCT Drag & Drop Recent Posts

You can display image slides with title, image, author name, date, description, and read more linked to posts from the selected category.

Advanced Posts Widget vs WPCT Drag & Drop Recent Posts