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!

W3netLab Innovations

<p><strong>Taxonomy Extender</strong> enhances your WordPress site by:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Adding Categories and Tags to Pages</strong>: Assign categories and tags to pages just like posts.</li>
<li><strong>Enhanced Categories Widget</strong>: Extends the default Categories widget to allow excluding specific categories via checkbox controls.</li>
<li><strong>Enhanced Tag Cloud Widget</strong>: Extends the default Tag Cloud widget to allow excluding specific tags via checkbox controls.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Features:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Assign categories and tags to pages just like posts.</li>
<li>Extends the default Categories widget to allow excluding specific categories via checkbox controls.</li>
<li>Extends the default Tag Cloud widget to allow excluding specific tags via checkbox controls.</li>
<li>Works perfectly out of the box without any additional configuration.</li>
<li>Easy to use and configure.</li>
<li>Follows WordPress coding standards and best practices.</li>
<li>Extend the default WordPress categories and tags without compromising site speed.</li>
</ul>
<h3>License</h3>
<p>This plugin is licensed under the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html" rel="nofollow ugc">GPLv2 or later</a>.</p>
<h3>Credits</h3>
<p>Developed by <strong>W3netLab Innovations</strong>.</p>
<h3>Notes</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Support:</strong> For support, please visit the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/taxonomy-extender/" rel="ugc">plugin’s support forum</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Contributions:</strong> Contributions are welcome. Please contact the author for more information.</li>
</ul>


Taxonomy Extender For Categories and Tags

Adds category and tag support to pages, and extends the default WordPress Categories and Tag widgets to allow excluding specific categories and tags.

Flexible Posts Widget vs Taxonomy Extender For Categories and Tags