wpcodetips

You can display image slides with title, image, author name, date, description, and read more linked to posts from the selected category. 
You can order these elements as you wish using the drag & drop mechanism. Slides have a sightly animation effect. 
The user may select categories or other taxonomy items. This widget can also display custom post types. 
A number of slides are unlimited and you may specify how many slides you want to be visible in the column.
Please check out our <a href="https://demo.wp-code-tips.com/wpct-drag-drop-recent-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">DEMO</a>.
Configuration (see screenshot of backend):
<ol>
<li>Widget title.</li>
<li>Post type – enter post type name you want to display posts from.</li>
<li>Post type taxonomy – enter post type taxonomy name to restrict the data to display.</li>
<li>Taxonomy – select taxonomy items. You may select specified categories or display items from all categories. Empty taxonomy is not displayed.</li>
<li>Show archive links below items to give a possibility to read more posts from selected categories.</li>
<li>Force display sticky posts – applies to post type only, select if you want to include a sticky post to slides.</li>
<li>Number of items in a row.</li>
<li>Number of rows.</li>
<li>Number of all items – total number of slides.</li>
<li>Show or hide post titles.</li>
<li>Make post title clickable.</li>
<li>Choose header tag for titles.</li>
<li>Creation date – show/hide post creation date, the date format is taken from global settings, display date above or below the title.</li>
<li>Show or hide the author’s name.</li>
<li>Show or hide post taxonomy items (a category name)</li>
<li>Readmore – show/hide read more link.</li>
<li>Order direction (ascending, descending).</li>
<li>Ordering type (date, title, most commented).</li>
<li>Navigation (bullets, none).</li>
<li>Description limit – enter number of chars for each slide description.</li>
<li>Image floating (left, right, none).</li>
<li>Show/hide thumbnail.</li>
<li>Thumbnail clickable – link the image to the full post</li>
<li>Interval in milliseconds for a sliding.</li>
<li>Enable or disable pause on hover.</li>
<li>Image size from WordPress settings (Settings > Media). You can choose: thumbnail, medium, large</li>
<li>Grid spacing – space between items.</li>
<li>Drag and drop to change order of the post elements.</li>
</ol>

WPCT Drag & Drop Recent Posts

You can display image slides with title, image, author name, date, description, and read more linked to posts from the selected category.

Taylor Lovett

Show latest posts from specific categories in your sidebar. Simple, easy-to-use, and customizble.
Special Features:
<ul>
<li>Choose posts from up to three categories to display posts from</li>
<li>Optionally show post titles</li>
<li>Optionally show post bylines</li>
<li>A dashboard widget that displays WordPress blogging tips, SEO tricks, exclusive tutorials, SEO strategies, and more!</li>
<li>Show either the content, the excerpt, or the content with a limited number of characters</li>
<li>Limit the number of posts shown. Offset the posts that are shown</li>
<li>Widget includes a style manager!</li>
<li>Easily change the font size, font family, title font size, etc from within the widget.</li>
<li>This widget is reusable</li>
<li>Very easy to setup. Requires NO technical knowledge to install</li>
<li>Can be translated to multiple languages</li>
<li>Outputs clean, validated code</li>
<li>Free Support via email</li>
</ul>
Restrictions/Requirements:
<ul>
<li>Works with WordPress 2.8.1+, WPMU, and BuddyPress (WordPress 3.0+ is highly recommended)</li>
<li>PHP 4 or 5</li>
<li>PHP register_globals and safe_mode should be set to “Off” (this is done in your php.ini file)</li>
<li>Your theme must call wp_head() and wp_footer()</li>
</ul>
<h3>Configuring and Using the Plugin</h3>
Instructions for this plugin can be found at http://www.taylorlovett.com/wordpress-plugins
<h3>Support</h3>
For questions, feature requests, and support concerning the Latest News Widget plugin, please visit: 
http://www.taylorlovett.com/wordpress-plugins

WPCT Drag & Drop Recent Posts vs Latest News Widget