planetoftheweb

Displays a list of the latest posts with category headings, the date and author name. You can control the number of posts displayed as well as modify the title of the widget and put in a descriptive paragraph. As seen on http://iviewsource.com.

User Photo

Displays a better looking list of the blog's posts.

nurelm

This plugin adds the ability to put a shortcode tag in any static page or post and have it display a list of posts using the get_posts template tag. For more detailed information about this plugin, please check out its <a href="http://www.nurelm.com/themanual/2009/08/21/nurelm-get-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">home page</a>.
By default it will show the 5 most recent posts ordered in reverse date order, 
but it will accept any of the options provided by the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_posts" rel="nofollow ugc">get_posts template tag</a>.
To use it, just put the following into the HTML of any page or post, use as many times as you like on the same page:
<pre><code>[get_posts]
</code></pre>
This default usage will return the last 5 posts in reverse chronological order. 
Along with all the options provided by the get_posts template tag, it will also 
accept a few additional options:
<ul>
<li>
ul_class. This is the class assigned to the bullet list, with a default of “get_posts_class”.
</li>
<li>
fields. This is a comma separated list of fields to show, taken right from the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Database_Description/2.7#Table:_wp_posts" rel="nofollow ugc">wp_posts database table fields</a>. Some of the more interesting fields you can use in this list include post_title, post_date, and post_excerpt (you’ll find more in the table description referenced above). The default is “post_title”. In addition to standard fields, you can also use “post_featured_image” here to pull the corresponding featured image, or “custom_text” to add your own text.
</li>
<li>
fields_classes. Another comma separated list that lets you assign a class to each of the fields specified above, which will be provided via a tag wrapped around the field. The default value for this list is “post_title_class”.
</li>
<li>
fields_make_link. One more comma separated list that lets you choose which of your fields are links to the post. It is a list of either “true” or “false” values … values of “true” make the corresponding field a link. The default is “true”.
</li>
<li>
post_featured_image_size. Defaults to “thumbnail” but can also be “medium”, “large” and “full” (the size of the image you uploaded).
</li>
<li>
custom_text_value. If you choose “custom_text” as one of the fields to display, this is what will be displayed.
</li>
</ul>
A couple of examples:
<pre><code>[get_posts tag="my favorite tag" numberposts=5 orderby="title]
</code></pre>
Shows a bulleted list consisting of the titles of 5 posts with the tag “my favorite tag” ordered by title.
<pre><code>[get_posts tag="my favorite tag" fields="post_title, post_date, post_excerpt, post_featured_image, custom_text" fields_classes="class1, class2, class3, class4, class5" fields_make_link="true, false, false, false, true", custom_text_value="Read More"]
</code></pre>
Shows a bulleted list consisting of the titles, post dates, and excerpts of posts with the tag “my favorite tag”. The title will be wrapped in a tag with a class of “class1”, the date with a of class “class2”, and the excerpt with “class3”. Only the title will provide a link to the post. Also shows the post’s featured image (in thumbnail size) and “Read More”.
Check the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_posts" rel="nofollow ugc">get_posts template tag</a> documentation for all of the possible options associated with the tag, and the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Database_Description/2.7#Table:_wp_posts" rel="nofollow ugc">wp_posts database table fields</a> for all possible field names.

Get Posts

Adds a shortcode tag [get_posts] to display a list of posts within any static page or post.

User Photo vs Get Posts