Wordpress - show posts from a particular category in sidebar "recent posts"

Question

how can i make the "recent posts" in the WP sidebar show posts from a particular category only?

Answer 1

Probably easiest to make your own recent posts widget with one of Otto's php code widgets http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/php-code-widget/ and a new query:

<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('category_name=mycategory&showposts=1'); ?>

<?php while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>

<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">

<?php the_title(); ?></a>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Style it any way you want. The new query loop won't conflict with the main WP loop and can be used any numbers of time.

Answer 2

Or if you prefer something a little more user-friendly(doesn't require posting code into the widget), you may find the following plugin of use.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/query-posts/

Nice little plugin that one, written by Justin Tadlock.