This is a simple WordPress plugin that creates a recent posts widget that displays the post thumbnail and, optionally, the post title and date. You can select the number of posts to display and choose to hide or show the title and date.
Very little styling has been applied so that the theme designer, developer or use can easily customize the appearance.
To install, download the plugins zip file. Within your WordPress admin, navigation to Plugins > Add New and click "Upload." Browse to the zip file and upload it, then click to activate it.
You'll then see a new widget in your Appearance > Widgets screen. Add the widget to your sidebar and configure and style as desired.
In the editor, you can use the shortcode like this:
[neatly_recent]
In a theme, you can use it like this:
<?php echo do_shortcode('[neatly_recent]'); ?>
There are a few options/ attributes you can choose to modify:
Title Text
The default title for the recent posts block is "Recent Posts" but you can change it by defining title_text= within the shortcode (any string will do), e.g.:
[neatly_recent title_text="Newest Content"]
Number of Posts
By default, the shortcode shows the 3 most recent posts. You can set a different number like so:
[neatly_recent number_posts="5"]
Hide Title and/or Date
Sometimes you just want to go minimal. In that case, you can hide the title and/or the date:
[neatly_recent hide_title="true" hide_date="true"]
Hide Read More Text
You also have the option of hiding the "read more" text that accompanies each post.
[neatly_recent hide_read_more="true"]
Thumbnail Size
Finally, you can select the size of thumbnail to display. Valid values include "medium," "large," "full," and any custom images sizes registered with add_image_size() - "thumbnail" is also valid, but it's the default so no need to declare it. E.g.:
[neatly_recent thumb_size="medium"]
- 0.6 Added "read more" text option
- 0.5 Fixed error causing widget not to save (hat tip @blakewatson)
- 0.4 Fixed syntax error (hat tip @clintonwilmott)
- 0.3 Added shortcode and thumb size options
- 0.2 Added ability to show/hide titles and dates
- 0.1 Initial build