Samuel Coskey

This is another simple plugin to show a list of posts from your blog. 
Use the <code>[postlist]</code> shortcode on any post or page.
The shortcode supports several options:
<ul>
<li>
category: If defined, show posts only from this category. 
Specify the category using its slug identifier. If you provide 
multiple comma-seperated category slugs then they will all be 
included.
</li>
<li>
tag: If defined, show posts only from this tag. Specify the tag 
using its slug identifier. If you provide multiple comma-seperated 
tag slugs then they will all be included.
</li>
<li>
style: One of list (default) or post. If it 
is list, then the list style is indented and bulleted. If it is post 
then the title is promoted to <code><h2 class="upcoming-entry-title"></code> and 
the list style is plain.
</li>
<li>
text: One of none (default), excerpt, excerpt-formatted, 
or normal. If it is excerpt, then the post excerpt is shown, similar 
to search results. If it is normal then the full post (up to 
the <code>[more]</code> tag) is shown.
</li>
<li>
more_text: Specify the text to append onto truncated excerpts. 
Defaults to <code>...</code>.
</li>
<li>
null_text: If no results are returned, shows this text. 
Defaults to <code>(none)</code>.
</li>
<li>
class_name: If defined, adds this class name to the generated <code><ul></code> 
element. Useful for custom styling.
</li>
<li>
show_date: If defined, the post date will precede the post title.
</li>
<li>
date_format: If showing the date, this php date format will be 
used. The default is the Date Format value from the General Settings 
page. I recommend <code>"F j, Y"</code>, which displays as “May 12, 2012”.
</li>
<li>
q: Arbitrary &-separated arguments to add to the query. See the 
<a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query/#Parameters" rel="nofollow ugc">WP_Query</a> 
page for available syntax. For example, to show only three posts and 
you want to show them in ascending instead of descending order, you would 
write <code>[postlist q="posts_per_page=3&order=ASC"]</code>.
</li>
</ul>
The output can then be further formatted using CSS. We recommend the 
plugin <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imporved-simpler-css/" rel="ugc">Improved Simpler 
CSS</a> for 
quickly styling your post list (and your site)!
This plugin can also be easily made into a widget by placing the shortcode 
into a text widget, and activating the <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shortcodes-in-sidebar/" rel="ugc">Shortcodes in 
sidebar</a> 
plugin.
Report bugs, give feedback, or fork this plugin on 
<a href="http://github.com/scoskey/Simple-post-listing-wordpress-plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.

Simple post listing

Use the [postlist] shortcode to show a list of posts.

Nick Momrik

Retrieves a list of the most recent posts.
<h3>Configuration</h3>
You may pass parameters when calling the function to configure some of the options. 
Example: <code>mdv_recent_posts(10, '', ' ', true, 5, false, false)</code>
The parameters: 
$no_posts – sets the number of recent posts to display 
$before – text to be displayed before the link to the recent post 
$after – text to be displayed after the link to the recent post 
$hide_pass_post – whether or not to display password protected posts 
$skip_posts – allows skipping of a number of posts before showing the number of posts specified with the $no_posts parameter 
$show_excerpts – allows the post excerpt to be output after the post title 
$include_pages – allows recent pages to be show with recent posts
<h3>Version History</h3>
1.1.2 – Added a space before rel=”bookmark” 
1.1.3 – Fix the space for real. Props Sandro Bonazzola 
1.2 – Use the esc_* functions and cleanup coding standards

Simple post listing vs Recent Posts