Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails

Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails

List the most recent posts with post titles, thumbnails, excerpts, authors, categories, dates and more!
Rating:
4.8
star-rating-1star-rating-2star-rating-3star-rating-4star-rating-5
Active Installations:
100000+
Last Updated:
Apr 13, 2025
WordPress Version:
4.6 or higher
Tested up to:
6.8.3

Lightweight, simple and effective

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Works in Page Builders

Users have reported that the plugin works in Elementor and Oxygen, making it compatible with popular page builders.

This plugin is designed to be lightweight and easy to use, providing a simple and effective way to display recent posts on your website. It is based on the default WordPress widget 'Recent Posts' but offers additional features such as thumbnails, excerpts, and categories. With this plugin, you can customize the appearance and content of your posts list to suit your needs.

The plugin does not collect any personal data, ensuring compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Works in Elementor and Oxygen

Compatible with Popular Page Builders

7.1.1

  • Restored PHP 5.x support

7.1.0

  • Added feature for post order and sorting (feature request: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sort-posts-by-title/)
  • Added class .rpwwt-post-excerpt-more for the “more” text following the excerpt. (feature request: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/class-for-more-sign/)
  • Dropped PHP 5 support
  • Moved language files to translate.wordpress.org. So, please contribute as a translator to make Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails available in more and more languages.
  • Compatibility with WordPress 5.8

7.0.3

  • new branding
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.6.2

7.0.2

  • Corrected comments in uninstall.php
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.6

7.0.1

  • Added catalan translation, thanks to Ibidem Group
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.5.3

7.0.0

  • Added option for omitting all alternative texts of images to improve accessibility
  • Added ARIA attribute for the list item of the current page to improve accessibility
  • Revised output if the post has no title
  • Revised thumbnail display functions
  • Improved description for the default alternative text
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of the widget form

6.9.0

  • Added option for the alt text of the default thumbnail
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of the widget form

6.8.0

  • Added option for the author name (please set a label if you have activated author names)
  • Added placeholders for the text fields
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.5.1
  • Updated screenshot of the widget form

6.7.1

  • Added NAV element around the post list if the theme supports the ‘navigation-widgets’ type (introduced in WP 5.5)
  • Added aria-label to the NAV element for better accessibility
  • Added loading=”lazy” attribute to the default image (introduced in WP 5.5)
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.5

6.7.0

  • Added new hook for developers ‘rpwwt_categories’ to modify the category list of each list item
  • Added spanish translation
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.3.2

6.6.1

  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.3

6.6.0

  • Added option to display only the default thumbnail
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.2.4
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

6.5.1

  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.2.1

6.5.0

  • Added option to use only except fields as the source for excerpts
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.0.3
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

6.4.1

  • Revised image size selection if a registered image size name is used
  • Changed variable names in get_first_content_image_id()
  • Changed initalization of variables site_protocol and site_url
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 5.0.2

6.4.0

  • Added option to omit CSS generation
  • Moved option for CSS class names to section “Additional settings”
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

6.3.1

  • Fixed missing “more” links at excerpts from excerpt fields
  • Fixed missing line break in the widget form

6.3.0

  • Added option to show only sticky posts
  • Added option to print inline CSS instead of writing it in a file
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.9.8

6.2.1

  • Fixed missing sticky posts in category filtered lists
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.9.7

6.2

  • Added option for category names as links or not
  • Added subheadlines in the widget for a more comprehensive appereance
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.9.5

6.1

  • Added new filter hook ‘rpwwt_the_excerpt’ for manual excerpts
  • Removed sanitation of the widget title to allow HTML code as output
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.9.4

6.0

  • Added option for custom category label
  • Improved recognition of first images in post contents (now considers domain relative paths and protocol relative paths)
  • Fixed missing deactivation of thumbnails in version 5.3
  • Revised checks of variables
  • Further refactoring to simplify code management
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

5.3

  • Added option to hide sticky posts
  • Changed excerpt filter from ‘the_content’ to ‘the_excerpt’
  • Thorough refactoring to simplify code management
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.9.2

5.2.2

  • Fixed missing feature opening links in excerpts in new windows
  • Revised FAQ

5.2.1

  • Added greek translation. Thank you, Kostas Arvanitidis!
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.9.1

5.2

  • Added option to set the ‘more’ text as link
  • Updated *.pot file and some translations

5.1.2

  • Added japanese translation. Thank you very much, Kazuyuki Kumai
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.8.2

5.1.1

  • Added turkish translation. Thank you very much, Mehmet HAKAN
  • Added ‘Requires PHP’ info in readme.txt
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.8.1

5.1

  • Revised sanitations for texts and URLs on the pages
  • Revised translations
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.8

5.0

  • Removed usage of cache
  • Removed usage of extract()
  • Improved: Faster check for found first image against being an image
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.7.2

4.13.3

  • Revised translation of author line

4.13.2

  • Revised widget template for more conformity to WP standard widget output

4.13.1

  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.7

4.13

  • Added option to print the post category slugs as class names at LI elements
  • Fixed outdated URL to reviews
  • Updated *.pot file and german translation

4.12

  • Added option to ignore the post excerpt field as source of the excerpt
  • Updated *.pot file and german translation

4.11

  • Revised uninstall function for WordPress 4.6 due to the introduction of WP_Site_Query class
  • Narrowed down loading of plugin’s admin CSS file to Widgets page only
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.6

4.10.2

  • Fixed wrong length of excerpts

4.10.1

  • Added chmod after creation of public.css to ensure correct file permissions
  • Revised excerpt creation

4.10

  • Fixed old-to-new posts sort order in some installations to force new-to-old sort order
  • Fixed outdated translation
  • Added russian translation. Thank you very much, dmitriynn
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.5.2

4.9.2

  • Added polish translation. Thank you very much, Marcin Mikolajczyk
  • Improved: Manual excerpts are taken unchanged (“as is”)
  • I18n description in the backend’s plugin list
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.5
  • Updated *.pot file and translations

4.9.1

  • Improved integration of 3rd party plugins for effects on the thumbnail

4.9

  • Added option: Open post links in new windows
  • Renamed back: Hook ‘rpwwt-widget-title’ to ‘widget-title’ to let 3rd party plugins change the title
  • Improved sanitizing of stored variables
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

4.8

  • Added option: Show post author
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

4.7

  • Added option: Random order of posts
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.4.2

4.6.2

  • Renamed the hook names to avoid interferences with other functions of plugins and the theme. If you use these hooks for that plugin please change them: just place ‘rpwwt_’ before the hook names
  • Improved: Last list item has no space anymore to the next widget to keep same spaces between widgets

4.6.1

  • Fixed: widget title. Now if no title is entered no title is displayed (instead of showing the plugin’s name)
  • Fixed: commas in categories list. Commas are now internationalized (translated)

4.6

  • Added option: Post categories
  • Updated *.pot file and translations
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend

4.5.1

  • Moved comment checkbox to position after form fields for the excerpt options
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.4

4.5

  • Added option: Post title length
  • Updated *.pot file and translations

4.4

  • Added option: Show number of comments
  • Updated *.pot file and translations

4.3.4

  • Fixed search stop at more link
  • Deleted visual intend of the linklist in some themes
  • Refactored thumbnail size variable

4.3.3

Improved data sanitization

4.3.2

  • Added widget description based on backend language
  • Corrected text domain name for translate.wordpress.org
  • Renamed translation files

4.3.1

  • Little adaptions for language files, ready for translate.wordpress.org
  • Updated *.pot file and translations

4.3

  • Added arabic translation. Thank you very much, Shadi AlZard
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.3.1

4.2.1

  • Fixed alignment of text and thumbnail in right-to-left (RTL) languages. Please re-save the widget to get the correct layout in RTL languages.

4.2

  • Added persian translation (Farsi). Thank you very much Sajjad Panahi
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.3

4.1

  • Changed single selection of a category to selection of multiple categories
  • Added DIV with id rpwwt-{widget_id} and class rpwwt-widget around list for available container with ensured attribute for CSS selectors
  • Updated admin CSS
  • Updated *.pot file and german translation
  • Updated screenshot of widget in the backend
  • Revised readme.txt

4.0

  • Added category option: widget only lists posts of a selected category, else lists posts of all categories
  • Added sticky posts option: widget shows sticky posts on top of the list, else lists them in normal order
  • Added hide current post option: widget does not list the post where the user is currently on, else lists it
  • Added CSS class names for easy designing of the list and its list items; see Description for details
  • Added style sheet for Widget page in the backend
  • Fixed missing custom image sizes in frontend
  • Formatted the code more readable
  • Updated *.pot file and german translation
  • Updated screenshots
  • Revised readme.txt

3.0

  • Added default image sizes dropdown menu
  • Added options to print out excerpts
  • Refactored: HTML output moved into include files
  • Slight improvements for security and performance
  • Updated *.pot file and german translation
  • Revised readme.txt

2.3.3

  • Fixed error message on trial to open the CSS file
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.2.2

2.3.2

  • Fixed bug of wrong path to public.css file
  • Changed HTML class names, now they start with ‘rpwwt-‘

2.3.1

  • Set CSS for the list style to prevent dots in some themes
  • Added span element with class “post-title” around the title
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 4.2

2.3

  • Added option to keep aspect ratios of the original images
  • Added option to hide the post title in the list
  • Moved inline CSS to external file
  • Revised *.pot file and german translation

2.2.2

  • Successfully tested with WordPress 4.1
  • Fixed bug which threw a warning in debug mode when accessing options

2.2.1

  • Fixed bug which prevented to find the first content image
  • Slightly revised algorithm for detecting the first image in post content

2.2

Revised algorithm to detect the first image in post content.

2.1.1

Successfully tested with WordPress 4.0

2.1

  • Improve uninstall routine
  • Tested successfully with WordPress 3.9.2

2.0

  • Added option to set width and height of the thumbnails
  • Added option to prefer first content image to featured image
  • Added option to use only first content image as thumbnail
  • Added option to set a default thumbnail
  • Added function to delete plugin’s settings in the database if the plugin is deleted
  • Improved code for more robustness
  • Updated *.pot file and german translation

1.0

  • The plugin was released.

So many settings!

By lollyroll on October 10, 2025

It's great that your plugin has so many settings for widgets. Thanks for making it.

Simple but Invaluable Plugin

By funkster on July 1, 2025

This plugin performs a simple task but one that I find to be invaluable.

Help on a undefined array key rand

By techspecx on January 9, 2025

Hello,
I hope all is well. The plugin worked flawlessy for years but now I am getting the below message when I debug my site. Could you help?

The plugin works fine when I have the debug off. Thank you.

Regards,
Robert

Warning: Undefined array key "rand" in /var/www/mysite.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/recent-posts-widget-with-thumbnails/recent-posts-widget-with-thumbnails.php on line 138

Génial

By evolute2 on December 11, 2024

Bravo, le paramétrage peut être fait au millimètre, excellent !

BRILLIANT!

By jeanedwa on September 20, 2024

Works perfectly- recent posts can be displayed in sidebar with or without thumbnails. Brilliant!

Just what I needed !

By elcondorito on September 15, 2024

Lots of options. Well thought of.
The only problem is the LI elements where too far apart vertically. I guess my theme is at stake.
So I added a bit of CSS to correct that :

#rpwwt-recent-posts-widget-with-thumbnails-2 > ul > li {
margin: 0;
}

Thanks !

interesting, if the thumbnail size works

By Marc73 on October 15, 2023

Looks like an interesting plugin. NO matter what I set the thumbnail size to, the thumbnails remained 75x75.....

Can't find

By webstpro on July 7, 2023

The installation documentation says "Go to ‘Appearance’ => ‘Widgets’ and select ‘Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails’" but it does not show. So I could not use.

Excellent plugin!

By mystnick on April 18, 2023

Good.

However, there is not enough setting for rounding the corners of the thumbnails. I had to add it with css.

Thumbnails don't show up

By jedan on November 19, 2022

Thumbnails don't show up after the latest WordPress update (6.1.1)
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