Ashley

Expanding Archives adds a widget that shows your old posts in an expandable/collapsible format. Each post is categorized under its year and month, so you can expand all the posts in a given month and year.
This plugin comes with very minimal CSS styling so you can easily customize it to match your design.
JavaScript is required. No IE support.

Expanding Archives

This plugin adds a new widget where you can view your old posts by expanding certain years and months.

Syed Balkhi

Dave

Noumaan Yaqoob

The built-in WordPress archives widget is great for new blogs, but it doesn’t look as good for more established blogs like <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPBeginner</a>. Compact Archives displays the monthly archive of posts in a more compact form rather than the usual long list. It can be shown as a compact block suitable for the body of an <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-an-archives-page-in-wordpress/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">archives page</a>:
<pre><code>2009: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2008: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2007: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
</code></pre>
or in an even more compact form to fit a sidebar:
<pre><code>2009: J F M A M J J A S O N D
2008: J F M A M J J A S O N D
2007: J F M A M J J A S O N D
</code></pre>
or something in between:
<pre><code>2009: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2008: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2007: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
</code></pre>
Compact Archive plugin works seamlessly with <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-use-the-new-wordpress-block-editor/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">Gutenberg Block Editor</a>, <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-disable-gutenberg-and-keep-the-classic-editor-in-wordpress/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">Classic Editor</a>, and WordPress widgets.
<h4>What’s Next</h4>
If you like this plugin, then consider checking out our other projects:
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<li><a href="https://wpforms.com/" title="WPForms" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPForms</a> – Best Drag & Drop WordPress Form plugin (over 1 million active installs).</li>
<li><a href="https://www.monsterinsights.com/" title="MonsterInsights" rel="friend nofollow ugc">MonsterInsights</a> – See the Stats that Matter and Grow Your Business with Confidence. Best Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.seedprod.com/" title="SeedProd" rel="friend nofollow ugc">SeedProd</a> – Jumpstart your website with the #1 Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Plugin for WordPress.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/" rel="ugc">WP Mail SMTP</a> – Improve email deliverability for your contact form with the most popular SMTP plugin for WordPress.</li>
</ul>
Visit <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/" title="WPBeginner" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPBeginner</a> to learn from our <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/wp-tutorials/" title="WordPress Tutorials" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WordPress Tutorials</a> and find out about other <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/plugins/" title="Best WordPress Plugins" rel="friend nofollow ugc">best WordPress plugins</a>.
Like all plugins, Compact Archives is only available for self-hosted WordPress sites. So YES you need to <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-properly-move-your-blog-from-wordpress-com-to-wordpress-org/" title="switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org</a> in order to use this plugin on your WordPress site. For more details, see the infographic on <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/" title="Self Hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Self hosted WordPress.org vs Free WordPress.com</a>
If you like this plugin, then please leave a good rating. For support just ask the questions here in the support forum.
<h4>Credits</h4>
This plugin was originally created by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/robmarsh/" rel="nofollow ugc">Rob Marsh</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aldolat/" rel="nofollow ugc">Aldolat</a> added a widget for it. WPBeginner adopted the plugin and took the responsibility of keeping it updated.

Compact Archives

Displays a smart monthly archive of posts in a more compact form rather than the default long archive widget.

Expanding Archives vs Compact Archives