Good content can easily get lost on a blog. That it is why it is important to highlight your best content. You can do this by taking advantage of related post solutions, such as the one included with Jetpack, and by showcasing your best content on your home page and blog sidebar.
A quick check of this blog’s stats highlights that I have published 840 blog posts. Unfortunately, with such a volume of content, a lot of good articles can get lost in the archives.
To help my readers find my best content easily, I wanted to create pages that curated all of my best content. This includes a reviews page that links to all my reviews of products and services; and a guides page that links to the tutorials that I have published.
To help me do this, I searched for the best solution for displaying a gallery of blog posts on a page.
Rise Forums members Kris Hoja and Prakash suggested creating a page template in order to do this as it would give me full control over the output. However, I did not want to spend a lot of time perfecting such a template. Nor did I want to have to create a new page template for my reviews page every time I changed my blog’s WordPress theme.
That is why a WordPress plugin is a more practical solution for me.
I tested four or five list related plugins, including Display Posts Shortcode and Get Post List With Thumbnails; however, the one that I chose was a little known plugin entitled W4 Post List.
In this review, I would like to show you what the plugin can do.
Configuring W4 Post List
W4 Post List allows you to display a list for any WordPress post type or taxonomy on your website. This includes posts, pages, categories, tags, menus, and any custom post type you are using. Lists can also be selected from content published by a specific user.
The two pre-defined templates are Simple List and Posts with Thumbnail. The simple list option will display a basic unordered list.
The other option is Custom. This allows you to customise your list in your own way.

W4 Post List allows you to create lists from any type of content on your website.
The settings tab that is displayed second in the menu will depend on what you selected as your list type. If you selected posts, you will be able to select your post type (posts, pages, etc). If you selected terms, you will be able to select your chosen taxonomy (tags, categories, etc). Both options will be available if you select Terms + Posts as your list type.
This gives you a huge amount of flexibility over what content is displayed. For example, you could only select posts that belong to a specific category.
You can be very specific about what you want to display. List items can be restricted to a certain keyboard or you can be more specific and specify the post ID of the content you want to include and exclude. You can also specify the author.
One of my favourite features is the ability to only add content to a list if it has a particular post status. You could use this to do a number of things; such as display a preview message that promoted your blog’s upcoming featured articles.
On this blog, I will use it to ensure that only published blog posts are added to certain lists. For example, I added the post ID for this article to my list of WordPress plugin reviews a few hours ago. However, the article was not displayed on the list until I hit the publish button.
If I had to manually add a link to such a page, I would have to add the note while the article was still in draft status or plan to add the link to the article later (i.e. once the article has been published). This may sound like a small feature, but it is something that I find incredibly useful.

You can be very specific about what content is added to your list.
The order of items and the number of items displayed can also be defined. You can offset lists by a certain amount too.
Items can also be grouped together. For example, by year, by month, or by author. This makes W4 Post List a fantastic plugin for creating an archives page.

W4 Post List lets you decide how list items are ordered and whether they are grouped.
If you select posts as your list type, you can specify additional restrictions for your list. Tax Query allows you to define a taxonomy for your list.
For example, you could restrict your lists to posts of a specific category and posts from a specific tax. Those of you who have a high number of posts and pages on Your WordPress website will appreciate this level of control.

AND and OR operators can be used to refine your list.
Queries can also be performed with meta information.

Meta Queries can also be used to refine a list.
Dates can also be used to customise your list.

You will find date queries useful too.
Where W4 Post List really distinguishes itself from the competition is its implementation of templates (though as I will note later in this article, it could be improved). Most of the other solutions I saw online only allowed you to choose a simple list of text links or post thumbnails; there was no room to customise things in your own way.
The plugin allows you to control the HTML and the styling that displays your list. This gives you many wonderful ways in which your content is displayed on your website.

Being able to customise the look of your list makes W4 Post List extremely versatile.
Clicking on the Template Example button will help you see how a template can be constructed. While clicking on the Shortcodes button will bring up a list of all the shortcodes you can use to create your template.

There is an abundance of shortcodes on offer.
W4 Post List allows you to define the HTML class, CSS code, and the Javascript that is to be loaded after the template ends.

Every element of your list can be styled.
The plugin features a detailed documentation page which is accessible via your WordPress admin area. The documentation page contains several examples of lists that you can use. It also contains a detailed explanation of every shortcode that can be used in your list template.
Another little thing I like about the plugin is that the administration page that shows all the lists I have created displays the corresponding shortcodes. This lets me quickly copy the shortcode for a particular list and copy it into a post or page.

The shortcode for each list is displayed on the right hand side of the page.
The plugin also features a widget for displaying your lists in widget areas. All you have to do is select your list.

Lists can be displayed in any widget area on your website.
Once you understand how the plugin works, it only takes you a minute to create a new list and publish it on your website.
Examples of W4 Post List
The developers of W4 Post List have some examples of how the plugin can be used on their website.
The example below showcases a team menu in which visitors can see links to popular football teams.

The plugin can be used to create beautiful lists and menus.
Professional blog post archives can also be created easily. You can see how Brian Jackson modified this template, and made it more colourful, on his blog archives page.

W4 Post List can display content in tables.
The example below was taken from my WordPress theme review page. All I had to do was make the thumbnail link to the article and display the article link underneath.
You can see examples of other lists I created using this template on my reviews page.

Thumbnails will bring your lists to life.
The examples that are provided to you by the developer will help you create your own stylish list. Be sure to refer to the documentation contained in the plugin admin area for ideas on what information you can display on your list.
Problems with W4 Post List
I have been testing WordPress plugins for a long time. I frequently find problems in plugins because I spend time examining how things work and look closely at what every setting is for.
Without doubt, W4 Post List is a fantastic plugin. However, I did experience some problems with the plugin.
Two small things that bothered me a little were:
- Ordering: I wanted one of my lists to list items in a specific order. Therefore, I listed their post IDs in the order I wanted then listed. I assumed the option to order items by Menu Order would list the items in the order I specified, however that did not work. The plugin currently offers ten different ways to order blog posts, including publishing date, comments, ID, title, random, and more. Hopefully, an option to list items in a specified order will be added later.
- Featured Images for Pages: WordPress allows you to specify featured images for pages. Unfortunately, there is no shortcode available to display featured images from pages. Due to this, I had to manually create a table for my reviews index.
Both of the above issues are minor and I am sure the developer will add them at one point in the future.
In the meantime, there is something the developer needs to correct as a priority.
There seems to be a problem with data not being saved correctly. This problem manifests itself in a number of ways.
I first noticed this problem with my template code after I added template code and styling to one of my lists. I then switched from the custom preset to the simple list preset; to see how it looked. When I switched back, all of my code had disappeared.
This is an annoying problem as it means that templates that you spent hours creating could easily be lost. What is needed is a template system that allows users to save their templates. As it stands, you need to copy any template and styles you have created from one list to another.
The loss of data is sadly not restricted to templates. It took me many hours to go through my blog post archives and select wich posts were reviews, which were theme lists, which were plugin lists etc.
As I was testing all the functionality for the purpose of this review, I switched my largest list from Posts to Terms + Posts. When I switched back, all of the post IDs I had spent hours curating had disappeared. My configuration settings had reset to default too.
Thankfully, I was able to find the list of post IDs from a VaultPress backup that was backed up this morning (you will find data inside your postmeta table); however, others have not been as lucky.
This problem means that you need to be very careful when making changes with W4 Post List. Important data can be lost if you change the list type and there is no warnings about this in the plugin. There needs to be a way to save data in the future; whether it be a revision system or save system. Regardless, the plugin needs to stop resetting fields to blank if a list type has been changed.
Final Thoughts
Despite some issues with data not being saved after customisations, W4 Post List is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to create lists of your website content. The plugin is 100% free to download and is versatile enough to be able to create simple lists of links, galleries, tables, and more.
Once you have an understanding of what the plugin can do, I have no doubt that you will be creating interesting lists for your readers. Whether it be an archives page or a page that highlights your best content.
I recommend you give it a try.
Good luck,
Kevin
Thank you for that review, Kevin.
So, the post overview on the right side of your website, under ‘Categories’ and with the drop down menu: is that created by W4?
I was wondering the other day what Tim Ferriss is using on his site, under ‘Most Popular’ on the right hand side, to display those articles in that way he does. Any idea if that is a plugin? I kind of like that. Simple but useful because it has multiple ‘windows’ and therefore doesn’t take up much space. See: http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
Regards
David
No. That is powered by Better Recent Posts Pro (By Pippin Williamson).
You can see the plugin in action here.
You will find lots of tabbed widget plugins on WordPress.org. They’re quite common ๐
Thanks for the mention Kevin! Great article and yes I am loving this plugin.
No problem Brian. ๐
Cool, thanks! Nice price, only 5USD!
PS: The link you shared leads into a dead end.
The plugin is free to download.
Sorry about the link. I’ve edited it. I had forgot the http:// part ๐
Are you sure? Because when I google for Better Recent Posts Widget Pro I find Pippin’s website but when I click download it takes me to his CodeCanyon page
Sorry. I’m getting mixed up. I thought you were referring to W4 Post List. Yeah Better Recent Posts Pro is $5 from CodeCanyon. It hasn’t been updated in years but still works well. You can find it here.
Wow, I must say, that post list plugin is an awesome one. I just used the same layout as my theme use, and my list exactly blends into my theme perfectly, woohoo !!!
Note for you, your “reviews/product-services” page is displaying the shortcode only, i guess you haven’t activated it yet ?
Hi Andreas,
It should be working now. When I reactivated the plugin, it deactivated again due to an error. But it seems to be working now ๐
Kevin
Awesome plugin. Thanks for sharing ๐ Loving it
Hi Kevin,
Just to let you know that the problem #1 has a solution now (V: 2.0.2). Yes, you can now order posts using their ids defined on the “Include Posts” field. I have included one new method on the orderby dropdown naming “Include Posts”.
Regarding is issue #2, i have no idea why it’s not working for you. As the techniques i have used for post thumbnail shortcode, does even work on custom post types including WooCommerce products.
Regards.
Thats great Shazzad. Being able to order post by id is a great addition.
I would know how the js code is defined. I have not found this feature ?
My current website designed with WP is going to be opened but I am still locked by some needs of enhancements of W4 :
1- I have failed till now to produce list of posts with an identical result for the “dynamic” postlist produced by WP (archive, content, search …) and WP theme twentythirteen templates and child theme (which enhances widely twentythirteen) templates and with the W4 templates.
2- An enhancement of TOC+ (future plugin) that I have developed allows to produce a popup (js and ajax) with summary (titles, icons… anchor link to fragment) of the W4 lists as for pages, articles and WP dynamic lists. (but it does it well for all except W4 produced list. I am looking for the bug).
So one of the locking points which remains is W4 templates which don’t allows (request of enhancement) to define shortcodes to insert the result of a user code (plugin for W4 plugin). I uses some functions defined for the WP template used into the loop, which functions cannot be introduced into W4 templates, without “user shortcodes”.
Another point is that the W4 lists are built for shortcode set into post or pages, this is not exactly the same as “dynamic standalone list” of WP themes (bases on WP core). Nevertheless W4, which doesn’t produce dynamic (doesn’t accept parameters for query) can provide content and structure (groups) which should be able to be integrated with the same presentation and styles than the WP list.
I currently try to produce such lists with W4.
This appears as an extension of the great plugin W4.
please any one tell me how to show recent post? i have a big problem any one can this fix
Can you please post full details about the issue at Rise Forums and we will try and help you with this.
Kevin
Hi Kevin, I work with this plugin for long time and love it. But it seem the developer don’t work anymore on it. No update for a long time. Do you now something or have a tip for an good alternative?
Sorry I’m not aware of any alternatives.