Prasanna SP

This plugin creates a new widget which lets you show a list of recent posts based on categories or tags. This is a must have plugin if you want to exclude some categories in recent posts widget or if you want to show recent posts based on tags. By default the wordpress recent posts widget shows a posts from all category. But this plugin gives you more power to customize your recent posts widget. You can also display post date in the widget.
See the live action of this plugin on <a href="http://demo.prasannasp.net/custom-recent-posts-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">demo site</a> or on Kennneth John Odle’s <a href="http://blog.kjodle.net/" rel="nofollow ugc">blog</a>.
Have any questions or suggestions? Create a thread in the <a href="http://forum.prasannasp.net/forum/plugin-support/custom-recent-posts-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">support forum</a>.
Visit <a href="http://www.prasannasp.net/wordpress-plugins/" rel="nofollow ugc">this page</a> for more WordPress Plugins from the developer.
A special thanks to <a href="http://blog.kjodle.net/" rel="nofollow ugc">Ken</a> and <a href="http://www.joshlobe.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Josh</a> for testing the code.

Custom Recent Posts Widget

A widget to show recent posts list based on categories or tags

DJ-Extensions.com

The simple plugin that allows you to display image slides with title, description and read more linked to posts from selected category. The slide title and description appear with slide-in animation effect. 
The user may select the category or display items of all categories. 
Number of slides is unlimited and you may specify how many slides you want to be visible in column. 
Image sizes available to select from the list are determined at Media Settings of WordPress. This way the plugin do not have to scale images by itself which is more site optimization friendly solution.
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>Make one row for a mobile devices (< 768px)</li>
<li>Number of all items – total number of slides.</li>
<li>Show or hide post titles.</li>
<li>Make post title linkable.</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, most read).</li>
<li>Navigation (bullets, none).</li>
<li>Description limit – enter number of chars for each slide description.</li>
<li>Image alignment (left, right, top, bottom).</li>
<li>Show/hide thumbnail.</li>
<li>Thumbnail linkable – 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>
</ol>

PE Recent Posts

The simple plugin that allows you to display image slides with title, description and read more linked to posts from selected category.

Custom Recent Posts Widget vs PE Recent Posts