Paul Annekov

<h4>Looking for maintainer. Write me to paul.annekov@gmail.com</h4>
Flexible Recent Posts (FRP) plugin gives you possibility to add widget to your blog with recent posts using user-defined template.
The main features are:
<ul>
<li>Template for each post in widget. You can write your HTML-template or overwrite default in widget form.</li>
<li>Shortcodes support in template. You can use built-in shortcodes to insert info related to current post in widget: <code>title</code>, <code>featured image</code>, <code>excerpt</code>, <code>date</code>, <code>permalink</code>, <code>author</code>, <code>comments</code>.</li>
<li>Restrict terms from which you want to display posts. Display posts from all terms or from selected only.</li>
<li>Number of posts to display. Set number of latest posts that will be displayed in widget.</li>
<li>All posts links. Select option to display link near the title or/and after all posts that will open selected posts category page. Set link title or custom link URL.</li>
</ul>
Useful links:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flexible-recent-posts/other_notes/" rel="ugc">Template shortcodes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://frp.idea.informer.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Feature requests</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/tags/flexible-recent-posts?forum_id=10#postform" rel="ugc">Bugs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://flattr.com/thing/646464" rel="nofollow ugc">Donate (Flattr)</a></li>
</ul>
Translators:
<ul>
<li>Russian (ru) – <a href="http://www.steelrat.info/en/" rel="nofollow ugc">Paul Annekov</a></li>
</ul>
Licenses
<ul>
<li>Uses <a href="http://www.fatcow.com/free-icons" rel="nofollow ugc">FatCow Icon Set</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/" rel="nofollow ugc">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Shortcodes</h3>
Plugin template system supports 5 shortcodes related to current widget post, that you can use in your template:
Title [frp_title]
Displays post title.
Example: <code><h4>[frp_title]</h4></code>
Excerpt [frp_excerpt length=””]
Displays post excerpt using <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_excerpt" title="Visit function reference page" rel="nofollow ugc">get_the_excerpt</a> function. 
You can specify excerpt length using <code>length</code> attribute. If not specified – default WordPress excerpt length used.
Example: <code><div class="excerpt">[frp_excerpt]</div></code>, <code>[frp_excerpt length="15"]</code>
Date [frp_date format=”F j, Y” time_since=”0″]
Displays post date. You can add <code>format</code> shortcode parameter to change date format. Read about format value <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Formatting_Date_and_Time" title="Visit customizing time and date reference page" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>. 
Add <code>time_since</code> parameter with 1 as value to display amount of elapsed time: <code>30 seconds ago</code>, <code>5 minutes ago</code>, <code>12 hours ago</code>, <code>3 Jun</code>.
Example: <code><div class="date">[frp_date format="Y/m/d g:i:s A"]</div></code>, <code><div class="elapsed">[frp_date time_since="1"]</div></code>
Link [frp_link]
Displays post permalink.
Example: <code><a href="[frp_link]">read more</a></code>
Featured image [frp_thumbnail size=”32×32″]
Displays featured post image. Add <code>size</code> shortcode parameter to change image size. You can define size using WIDTHxHEIGHT as value or size name (built-in or defined in theme).
Examples: <code>[frp_thumbnail]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="thumbnail"]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="128x128"]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="full"]</code>
Author [frp_author link=”1″]
Displays name of the post’s author. Set <code>link</code> parameter to 0 if you want to disable link (author’s site) from author name.
Examples: <code>[frp_author]</code>, <code>[frp_author link="1"]</code>, <code>[frp_author link="0"]</code>
Comments [frp_comments no_text=”1″]
Displays the number of comments. Set <code>no_text</code> parameter to 1 if you want to disable comment text (just “23” instead of “23 Comments”).
Examples: <code>[frp_comments]</code>, <code>[frp_comments no_text="1"]</code>, <code>[frp_comments no_text="0"]</code>

Flexible Recent Posts

Displays recent posts using flexible template system. Define template for each post entry, set needed taxonomy and much more.

David Gewirtz

IMPORTANT: Support has moved to the ZATZLabs site and is no longer provided on the WordPress.org forums. If you need a timely reply from the developer, please <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/submit-ticket/" rel="nofollow ugc">open a ticket</a>.
If you’ve ever wanted to display recent posts, but go far beyond the Recent Posts widget that comes with WordPress, you’re in the right place.
One of the very best ways to increase time-on-site (and therefore the engagement of your audience) is helping visitors discover new and wonderful pages and posts on your site. Better Recent Posts Widget can do that by displaying your beautiful featured images right in the widget. You can control the number of posts to display, specify if you want to skip some posts, and display custom post types.
<h4>Features</h4>
The WordPress.org version has the following features:
<ul>
<li>All new, better Recent Posts widget</li>
<li>Specify widget title</li>
<li>Control number of posts displayed</li>
<li>Control number of posts to skip (offset)</li>
<li>Optionally display post thumbnails</li>
<li>Customize thumbnail size</li>
<li>Choose post type to display</li>
</ul>
Additional features in the <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/better-recent-posts-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">pro version</a>:
<ul>
<li>Optionally display post author</li>
<li>Optionally display post count</li>
<li>Optionally display post comment count</li>
<li>Optionally display post excerpt/length</li>
<li>Customize post display order</li>
<li>Customize post sorting method</li>
<li>Better taxonomy selection control</li>
<li>Multiple widget instance support</li>
<li>Multisite capable</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
Adoption Notice 
 This plugin was recently adopted by David Gewirtz and ongoing support and updates will continue. Feel free to visit <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/when-it-rains-it-pours-another-plugin-adoption/" rel="nofollow ugc">David’s Lab Notes</a> for a development roadmap and additional details.
</blockquote>
<h4>Pro Version Availability</h4>
The pro version of this plugin is available for sale (and, indeed, will likely have an exciting future). To purchase the pro version, please visit <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/better-recent-posts-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">the plugin’s new home page</a>.
<h4>Support Note</h4>
Sales of the pro version on CodeCanyon have been halted and the pro plugin is now being sold <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/better-recent-posts-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">directly</a>. CodeCanyon Better Recent Posts Widget Pro users (and, of course, users of the free version) are invited to post questions. Support has moved to the ZATZLabs site and is no longer provided on the WordPress.org forums. If you need a timely reply from the developer, please <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/submit-ticket/" rel="nofollow ugc">open a ticket</a>.
<h4>Mailing List</h4>
If you’d like to keep up with the latest updates to this plugin, please visit <a href="http://zatzlabs.com/lab-notes/" rel="nofollow ugc">David’s Lab Notes</a> and add yourself to the mailing list.
Adopted from Pippin Williamson.

Better Recent Posts Widget (with thumbnails)

If you’ve ever wanted more control (a lot more control) over displaying your recent posts, this is the widget for you. Plus thumbnails.

Flexible Recent Posts vs Better Recent Posts Widget (with thumbnails)