Tiago Madeira

The website of the brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo has a nice way to 
display news in a retrospective-style (check <a href="http://blog.tiagomadeira.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/estadao.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc">this 
screenshot</a> 
or <a href="http://www.estadao.com.br/especiais/choque-nas-ruas,158638.htm" rel="nofollow ugc">this link</a> 
— Flash required).
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could display WordPress posts in our pages and 
categories in the same way just by using a shortcode? The possibilities are 
many. That’s why I wrote the Retrospective plugin for WordPress.
It has at least two advantages over the version you just saw:
<ul>
<li>Does not require Flash (its implementation uses only CSS and jQuery)</li>
<li>Has a option to respect the (time-)scale of the posts.</li>
</ul>
See Installation for more info on how to use it.

Retrospective

Retrospective plugin displays last posts or posts from a specific category in a nice-looking "retrospective" way using a shortcode.

Syed Balkhi

Dave

Noumaan Yaqoob

The built-in WordPress archives widget is great for new blogs, but it doesn’t look as good for more established blogs like <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPBeginner</a>. Compact Archives displays the monthly archive of posts in a more compact form rather than the usual long list. It can be shown as a compact block suitable for the body of an <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-an-archives-page-in-wordpress/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">archives page</a>:
<pre><code>2009: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2008: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2007: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
</code></pre>
or in an even more compact form to fit a sidebar:
<pre><code>2009: J F M A M J J A S O N D
2008: J F M A M J J A S O N D
2007: J F M A M J J A S O N D
</code></pre>
or something in between:
<pre><code>2009: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2008: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2007: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
</code></pre>
Compact Archive plugin works seamlessly with <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-use-the-new-wordpress-block-editor/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">Gutenberg Block Editor</a>, <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-disable-gutenberg-and-keep-the-classic-editor-in-wordpress/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">Classic Editor</a>, and WordPress widgets.
<h4>What’s Next</h4>
If you like this plugin, then consider checking out our other projects:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://optinmonster.com/" title="OptinMonster" rel="friend nofollow ugc">OptinMonster</a> – Get More Email Subscribers with the most popular conversion optimization plugin for WordPress.</li>
<li><a href="https://wpforms.com/" title="WPForms" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPForms</a> – Best Drag & Drop WordPress Form plugin (over 1 million active installs).</li>
<li><a href="https://www.monsterinsights.com/" title="MonsterInsights" rel="friend nofollow ugc">MonsterInsights</a> – See the Stats that Matter and Grow Your Business with Confidence. Best Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.seedprod.com/" title="SeedProd" rel="friend nofollow ugc">SeedProd</a> – Jumpstart your website with the #1 Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Plugin for WordPress.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/" rel="ugc">WP Mail SMTP</a> – Improve email deliverability for your contact form with the most popular SMTP plugin for WordPress.</li>
</ul>
Visit <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/" title="WPBeginner" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPBeginner</a> to learn from our <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/wp-tutorials/" title="WordPress Tutorials" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WordPress Tutorials</a> and find out about other <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/plugins/" title="Best WordPress Plugins" rel="friend nofollow ugc">best WordPress plugins</a>.
Like all plugins, Compact Archives is only available for self-hosted WordPress sites. So YES you need to <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-properly-move-your-blog-from-wordpress-com-to-wordpress-org/" title="switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org</a> in order to use this plugin on your WordPress site. For more details, see the infographic on <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/" title="Self Hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Self hosted WordPress.org vs Free WordPress.com</a>
If you like this plugin, then please leave a good rating. For support just ask the questions here in the support forum.
<h4>Credits</h4>
This plugin was originally created by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/robmarsh/" rel="nofollow ugc">Rob Marsh</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aldolat/" rel="nofollow ugc">Aldolat</a> added a widget for it. WPBeginner adopted the plugin and took the responsibility of keeping it updated.

Compact Archives

Displays a smart monthly archive of posts in a more compact form rather than the default long archive widget.

Retrospective vs Compact Archives