DaveE

<p>The default Recent Posts widget is exceptionally basic. I always find myself in need of a way to easily display a selection of posts from any combination post type or taxonomy. Hence, Flexible Posts Widget.</p>
<p>Flexible Posts Widget (FPW) is more than just a simple alternative to the default Recent Posts widget.  With many per-instance options it is highly customizable and allows advanced users to display the resulting posts virtually any way imaginable.</p>
<h4>Features & options</h4>
<ul>
<li>Customizable widget title</li>
<li>Get posts by post type(s) and/or taxonomy & term(s) or directly by a list of post IDs.</li>
<li>Control the number of posts displayed and the number of posts to offset.</li>
<li>Option to display the post feature image.</li>
<li>Select the post feature image size to display from existing image sizes: thumbnail, medium, large, post-thumbnail or any size defined by the current theme.</li>
<li>Order posts by: date, modified date, ID, title, menu order, random, Post ID Order; and sort posts: ascending or descending.</li>
<li>Each widget’s output can be customized by user-defined templates added to the current theme folder.</li>
<li>Multi Language support. Compatible with <a href="http://wpml.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">WPML</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/" rel="ugc">PolyLang</a> for sure. Not tested with other multi-language plugins, but it should work.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Plugin Hooks</h4>
<p>Flexible posts widget currently has two public hooks:</p>
<ul>
<li>Filter: <a href="https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/flexible-posts-widget/trunk/includes/class-fpw-widget.php#L191" rel="nofollow ugc"><code>dpe_fpw_args</code></a> allows filtering the query vars before submitting the widget posts query.</li>
<li>Filter: <a href="https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/flexible-posts-widget/trunk/includes/class-fpw-widget.php#L354" rel="nofollow ugc"><code>dpe_fpw_template_{$template_name}</code></a> filters the template file path used to display the widget output.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Future updates & feature requests list</h4>
<ul>
<li>Use search box instead of ID text field for post id’s</li>
<li>Shortcode functionality.</li>
<li>Get posts by Author.</li>
<li>Filter out the post currently being viewed.</li>
<li>Get posts from the same archive (term/post type/etc).</li>
<li>Limit results by a time period.</li>
</ul>


Flexible Posts Widget

This has got to be the most useful plugin of its kind.



Seriousl excellent plugin

An advanced posts display widget with many options. Display posts in your sidebars any way you'd like!

tugbucket

<p>Multi-column Tag Map displays a columnized and alphabetical (English) listing of all tags, categories, authors, pages, posts, single custom post types or taxonomies used in your site similar to the index page of a book. This makes it easier for your visitors to quickly search for topics that might intrest them. It’s a great alternative to the tag cloud and especially useful if you have a large site with a multitude of subjects, products etc…</p>
<p><strong>Live examples and option details can be found at <a href="http://mctagmap.tugbucket.net/" rel="nofollow ugc">mctagmap.tugbucket.net</a></strong></p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Alphabetically lists tags, pages, posts, categories, custom post types, authors and taxonomies</li>
<li>Over 50 customizable options</li>
</ul>
<h4>Links</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://mctagmap.tugbucket.net/" rel="nofollow ugc">Options and Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/multi-column-tag-map//" rel="ugc">Support</a></li>
</ul>


Multi-column Tag Map

Multi-column Tag Map will display tags, pages, posts, categories, custom post types, authors and taxonomies in a visually logical way similiar to that …

Flexible Posts Widget vs Multi-column Tag Map