The List Category Posts plugin lets you list post metadata (and optionally, its content) from a specified category. The content can be placed in pages or posts by using short codes, or into a sidebar by using the plugin’s widget.

Using short codes to list your category content on pages and posts

Use Case: You want to create a page or post with some text, and then create a dynamic list of recently published posts from a specific category on your site.

Solution: Create a page or post, add your text, then add a “catlist” short code, and minimally, provide the id of the category you want to list. To get your category’s ID, go to Posts>>Categories and click on the category you want to include. Get the numeric ID from the URL. Then simply key in the short code (see image, right) with the appropriate ID number.

The plug-in has many available settings, and they can be set in the short code using the “parameter = value” format. Follow this link to see all the available configurations possible.

Want to see an example of List Category Post? Follow this link.

Using the List Category Widget to list category content in the sidebar

After activating the List Category Posts plugin, go to Appearance>>Widgets. Find the plugin’s widget and drag it to the sidebar of your choice. Provide the category’s name (not its ID) from a convenient drop-down list, and play around with the settings. See the available configurations in the image on the right.