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!

Matthew Muro

<p><em>Multi-Column Taxonomy List</em> is a plugin that allows you to list your categories, tags, or custom taxonomies into multiple columns.</p>
<p>This plugin is great to use on custom archives index pages to display all categories, tags, and custom taxonomies on a single page. You can also turn the list into links to the RSS feeds for your taxonomies.</p>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<h4>Shortcode attributes</h4>
<p>You can implement a new list by adding the shortcode <code>[mctl]</code> to the content of a page.  By default, it will output the categories into three columns with a heading of Categories.  You can customize the output using attributes in the following format: <code>[mctl taxonomy='post_tag' title='Tags']</code></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>taxonomy</strong>: The taxonomy to retrieve terms from
<ul>
<li>Valid values: <code>category</code>, <code>post_tag</code>, <code>custom_taxonomy_name</code></li>
<li>Multiple values not allowed</li>
<li>Default: <code>category</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>title</strong>: Sets the title of the list
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any string</li>
<li>Default: <code>Categories</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>title_container</strong>: HTML element to wrap the title in
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any HTML element</li>
<li>Recommended values: <code>h1</code>, <code>h2</code>, <code>h3</code>, <code>h4</code>, <code>h5</code>, <code>h6</code>, <code>p</code></li>
<li>Default: <code>h3</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>columns</strong>: Sets the number of columns to use
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any integer</li>
<li>Default: <code>3</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>orderby</strong>: Sort terms by name, unique ID, slug, or the count of posts in that term
<ul>
<li>Valid values: <code>name</code>, <code>id</code>, <code>slug</code>, <code>count</code></li>
<li>Default: <code>name</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>order</strong>: Sort order for the terms (either ascending or descending)
<ul>
<li>Valid values: <code>ASC</code>, <code>DESC</code></li>
<li>Default: <code>ASC</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>alpha_grouping</strong>: Output the first letter of each alphabetical grouping
<ul>
<li>Valid values: <code>0</code>, <code>1</code></li>
<li>Default: <code>0</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>show_count</strong>: Toggles the display of the current count of posts in each term. <code>0</code> is false/off and <code>1</code> is true/on
<ul>
<li>Valid values: <code>0</code>, <code>1</code></li>
<li>Default: <code>0</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>exclude</strong>: Exclude one or more terms from the results.
<ul>
<li>Valid values: unique IDs, separated by commas. (ex: <code>exclude='12,13,22'</code>)</li>
<li>Default: no default</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>parent</strong>: Get direct children of this term
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any integer</li>
<li>Multiple values not allowed</li>
<li>Default: no default</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>child_of</strong>: Get all descendents of this term
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any integer</li>
<li>Multiple values not allowed</li>
<li>Default: <code>0</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>rss</strong>: Turns the list into links to RSS feed of term. <code>0</code> is false/off and <code>1</code> is true/on
<ul>
<li>Valid values: <code>0</code>, <code>1</code></li>
<li>Default: <code>0</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>rss_image</strong>: Use a custom image RSS image icon when <code>rss</code> is on.
<ul>
<li>Valid values: full URL to image</li>
<li>Default: <code>/wp-includes/images/rss.png</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>number</strong>: Max number of terms to display
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any integer</li>
<li>Default: display all terms</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>like</strong>: Return terms that begin with this value
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any string</li>
<li>Default: no default</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>search</strong>: Return terms that contain the ‘search’ string
<ul>
<li>Valid values: any string</li>
<li>Default: no default</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Template tag</h4>
<p>Alternatively, you can implement a new list by adding the the template tag <code><?php multi_column_tax_list(); ?></code> anywhere in the code of your theme. Just like the shortcode, by default it will output the categories into three columns with a heading of Categories.  You can customize the output using a string of parameters in the following format: <code><?php multi_column_tax_list( 'taxonomy=post_tag&title=Tags' ); ?></code></p>
<p>Refer to the above attributes for customizations.</p>


Multi-Column Taxonomy List

List your categories, tags, or custom taxonomies into multiple, customizable, columns.

Flexible Posts Widget vs Multi-Column Taxonomy List