robertdrake

This plugin creates the [Category]] Shortcode. The code takes 5 arguments:
number: the number of posts to display. 0 equals the default number. -1 equals the total available.
Order: Ascending or Descending
Display Method: Full, Excerpt, Title
Order By: Author, Date, Title, Modified, Parent, ID, Rand, None, or Comment Count.
Category: this is the category id the category or categories that should be searched. Multiple categories can be specified in a comma separated list.
Example shortcode:
[Category number=’5′ method=’title’ order=’asc’ id=’11,45′ orderby=’comment_count’]
This will show 5 posts in ascending order of category 11 and 45 as arranged by comment_count and will display just the post titles.
<h3>Acknowledgements</h3>
A big thank you to g33kg0dd3ss for figuring out the 1.3 fix issue with the loop being broken. She contributed the patch fix.
<h3>Future Additions?</h3>
<ol>
<li>
Let plugin form allow for multiple category selections
</li>
<li>
Let plugin form allow for multiple orderby methods
</li>
<li>
In admin form restrict Number of posts to numbers only.
</li>
<li>
In admin form setup a copy and paste script
</li>
<li>
Accept a category name as a valid input
</li>
<li>
Internationalization of the plugin
</li>
<li>
Improve Formatting of Posts / Make formatting easier to edit./ Give user more control over formatting
</li>
<li>
Allow attachments to come through
</li>
<li>
Turn title links on or off.
</li>
<li>
Allow comments in output
</li>
<li>
Give user more control over the postformatting
</li>
<li>
Add ability to modify thumbnail options through shortcode
</li>
</ol>

Category Shortcode

Plugin adds shortcode capability for adding posts by category to a page.

vk011

Displays posts with their featured images from a specified category in a responsive grid using a simple shortcode.
Easily show and display posts from specific categories using a simple shortcode.
After installation simply go to Settings > DCP Lite to find the plugins page with the shortcode options.
If you require more features, there is also a premium version of this plugin, Display Category Posts Via Shortcode Pro.
You can see the extra features it offers on the Settings > DCP Lite page.
Some of those features are:
<ul>
<li>Pagination</li>
<li>Ability to add character limit to your posts which automatically adds the “read more” link at that point, instead of adding the “read more” break yourself to each and every post.</li>
<li>Ordering of the posts</li>
<li>How many posts to show in a row (2,3 or 4)</li>
<li>Ability to turn post titles into links</li>
<li>Ability to turn posts’ featured images into links</li>
<li>Show date</li>
<li>Add “load all” ajax button which loads all the posts at once</li>
<li>Fetch posts from multiple categories</li>
<li>Fetch specific posts regardless of their categories</li>
</ul>
<h3>Arbitrary section</h3>
You may provide arbitrary sections, in the same format as the ones above. This may be of use for extremely complicated 
plugins where more information needs to be conveyed that doesn’t fit into the categories of “description” or 
“installation.” Arbitrary sections will be shown below the built-in sections outlined above.
<h3>A brief Markdown Example</h3>
Ordered list:
<ol>
<li>Some feature</li>
<li>Another feature</li>
<li>Something else about the plugin</li>
</ol>
Unordered list:
<ul>
<li>something</li>
<li>something else</li>
<li>third thing</li>
</ul>
Here’s a link to <a href="https://wordpress.org/" title="Your favorite software" rel="ugc">WordPress</a> and one to <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown is what the parser uses to process much of the readme file" rel="nofollow ugc">Markdown’s Syntax Documentation</a>. 
Titles are optional, naturally.
Markdown uses email style notation for blockquotes and I’ve been told:
<blockquote>
Asterisks for emphasis. Double it up for strong.
</blockquote>
<pre><code><?php code(); // goes in backticks ?>
</code></pre>

Display Category Posts Via Shortcode Lite

Displays posts with their featured images from a specified category in a responsive grid using a simple shortcode. After installation simply go to Se …

Category Shortcode vs Display Category Posts Via Shortcode Lite