Arno Welzel

This widget displays top level categories in multiple columns.
After installation, just add the widget to desired sidebar or footer and optionally enter a custom title and the number of columns to be displayed.
By default two columns are used, but you can set any number of columns you like in the backend.
Also see details at <a href="http://arnowelzel.de/wp/en/projects/wordpress/multicolumn-category-widget" rel="nofollow ugc">http://arnowelzel.de/wp/en/projects/wordpress/multicolumn-category-widget</a>.

Multicolumn Category Widget

This widget displays top level categories in multiple columns.

Swashata Ghosh

WP Category Posts List is a WordPress Widget & Shortcode plugin to show your posts filtered by category.
Built on the latest WP widget class, it has multiple widget instance support. Also you can modify the HTML structure of the widget in what ever manner you want.
Every thing is made simple from the widget options. It supports post thumbnails which would fetch thumbnails you have added from the wp editor. You can also set the CSS class, alternate list css style and much more. Also, you have complete control over the sorting method of the plugin.
New from Version 2 is the shortcode support using which you can make magazine style list of posts from a category. See the screenshots for more details.
<h3>Documentation</h3>
Check the Installation and FAQ page. For detailed documentation check <a href="http://www.intechgrity.com/wp-plugins/wp-category-post-list-wordpress-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">HERE at out blog</a>
<h3>Widget Feature List</h3>
<ul>
<li>A total of 30 (new in V2) options to choose from. (For this version! It will increase over time).</li>
<li>We have kept the basic and advanced sets of options seperately to not to overwhelm you with options. And hey, if you are an advanced user, just click the Toggle switch.</li>
<li>NEW Use the Current Category to automatically fetch the main category of the currently displayed post and list down other posts from that category. Suspends widget output if no category is found.</li>
<li>Ability to write custom tags on the widget title. Such as %widget_num% will get replaced by the number of posts on the category list.</li>
<li>NEW Ability to show the original category as Read more button below the widget with full supported HTML</li>
<li>NEW Ability to show category feed subscription link with full supported HTML.</li>
<li>Of course the ability to specify the number of posts for each widget.</li>
<li>Turn on/off post thumbnail.</li>
<li>Add custom CSS class to the post thumbnail.</li>
<li>Ability to specify sort using date, id, title, comment or random</li>
<li>NEW Choose whether or not to display hardcoded/auto-generated post excerpts</li>
<li>NEW Added options for displaying author name, publish date etc.</li>
<li>Set the sorting order ascending or descending.</li>
<li>Selecting the default HTML underordered list or set up your very own custom HTML structure</li>
<li>Specify custom HTML tag before/after the list and each link. In shorty design your own HTML nest.</li>
<li>Exclude post by ID, or even make some particular posts sticky</li>
<li>Decide whether the links would be opened on a new tab or on the present tab.</li>
<li>Apply alternate CSS classes to the link list, so you can design easily.</li>
<li>Also, include/exclude the plugin’s default CSS from the plugins Settings page.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Shortcode Feature List</h3>
<pre><code>[wp_cpl_sc attr="val"]
</code></pre>
* 15 attributes to work with. 
* Select CSS theme (bundled or your own via filters) for every instances of shortcodes 
* All options to control all output aspects of shortcode, including blog style post-meta, excerpt, thumbnail etc… 
Check the <a href="www.intechgrity.com/wp-plugins/wp-category-post-list-wordpress-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">documentation</a> for more information.
<h3>Plugin Feature List</h3>
<ul>
<li>Added option to specify the thumbnail width & height of widgets and shortcodes individually.</li>
<li>Added option to globally enable css themes which you can select from widget or shortcodes individually. So two widgets can easily have different themes now.</li>
<li>Added filter API using which you can use your own CSS file inside this plugin. Check the <a href="http://www.intechgrity.com/wp-plugins/wp-category-post-list-wordpress-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">documentation</a> for more information.</li>
<li>Added a Master Reset button to reset all the options to default. (useful in case of errors)</li>
</ul>
And many more features… Check the Plugins Setting page for FAQs.
Version 2.0.3 Released. Bugfix
Version 2.0.2 Released. Immediate bugfix to some errors
Version 2.0.0 Released. The first release of shortcodes and automatic category selection widget

WP Category Post List Widget

Widget & Shortcode to list down posts filtered by Category, with Thumbnails, Custom HTML structure, Excerpt, CSS theme with API & much more

Multicolumn Category Widget vs WP Category Post List Widget