ivdimova

Simple plugin that allows to the user to show a box containing featured images of recent posts. 
Can be used like widget or short code

Latest Box

Simple plugin that allows to the user to show a box containing featured images of recent posts.

plaintxt.org

Blog Summary produces a semantic, hAtom-enabled list of latest blog entries with excerpts, dates, and comments links that is generated with the shortcode <code>[blog-summary]</code> on any post or page. Shortcode attributes are available to customize the output as well as specify number of entries to show.
Blog Summary is the easiest way to show the latest blog entries on a static page, marked up in the hAtom microformat and utilizing the semantic class funtions when the <a href="http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/" title="Sandbox theme for WordPress" rel="nofollow ugc">Sandbox</a> (or Sandbox-based) theme is active.
Blog Summary is for WordPress 2.6.x and features:
<ul>
<li>Out-of-the-box function using shortcode without editing any files</li>
<li>Advanced shortcode attribute parsing for easy and complete customization</li>
<li>Highly semantic XHTML in the <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom/" title="hAtom 0.1 microformat" rel="nofollow ugc">hAtom</a> microformat</li>
<li>Integration with Sandbox (or Sandbox-based) class-generating functions</li>
</ul>
<h3>Use</h3>
After activating this plugin, simply use the shortcode <code>[blog-summary]</code> wherever you want a list of recent entries. The following optional attributes are parsed by this shortcode to customize the output:
<ul>
<li><code>count</code> – Number of recent entries to show. Default is 5.</li>
<li><code>grouptag</code> – HTML element to wrap all recent entries. Default is <code>ol</code>.</li>
<li><code>entrytag</code> – HTML element to wrap each entry. Default is <code>li</code>.</li>
<li><code>titletag</code> – HTML element to wrap each entry title. Default is <code>h4</code>.</li>
<li><code>datetag</code> – HTML element to wrap each entry date. Default is <code>span</code>.</li>
<li><code>commentstag</code> – HTML element to wrap each entry comments link. Default is <code>span</code>.</li>
<li><code>summarytag</code> – HTML element to wrap each entry summary. Default is <code>div</code>.</li>
</ul>
You may specify all or some of the attributes above. Attributes are optional and can be given in any order.
<pre><code>[blog-summary count="3" titletag="h2" datetag="p" commentstag="div"]
</code></pre>
And so on. A very simple plugin.
<h3>License</h3>
Blog Summary, a plugin for WordPress, (C) 2008 by Scott Allan Wallick, is licensed under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html" title="GNU General Public License" rel="nofollow ugc">GNU General Public License</a>.
Blog Summary is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Blog Summary is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Blog Summary. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Blog Summary

Blog Summary produces a semantic, hAtom-enabled list of the latest blog post excerpts with the shortcode [blog-summary].

Latest Box vs Blog Summary