WordPress: Show Posts of a Category in a Page

I had this custom page on my WordPress site where I would show only posts from a specific category. This was done manually, as in I PHP-coded a function into one of the theme’s PHP files to accept a shortcode, so it would do what I wanted it to.

There is a big chance that there is already a plugin that does this very thing, but the ones I found were complicated or over-engineered for what I need. I just wanted it to be simple.

So as a chance to learn more about the inner workings of WordPress, I searched the Internet and read manuals/examples. After an hour or so, I was able to create that PHP function to do that task – display posts from a single category on a specific page.

Happy as a clam I was… (but that was short-lived)

… Until the next theme update.

Where I did not really think it through and readily hit the update button. Only to realize later on that I did custom modifications on the theme itself. That means all of those are gone when I updated the theme. Didn’t have any backup as well. Or perhaps I did, on AWS as an EBS snapshot of the volume. But too lazy to spin that up, plus that would cost me too.

Determined to fix this debacle I proceeded to search for a solution. This time I wanted to go the plugin route. That way if there are any theme updates I didn’t have to worry about anything getting overwritten.

I was searching and searching and searching…. then I came across a very simple tip.

There is NO NEED for a plugin for what I required. Everything can be done via WordPress’s powerful editor. Now this solution works for me exactly how I want it to. Your mileage may vary. So go ahead and follow the 5 easy steps below to get you started.

Step 1

Go to that page where you want to display the posts by category. Create that page if you haven’t yet.

Step 2

Add a new block. Click on that round + icon. A pop up menu will come out.

Step 3

Search for “Latest Posts” widget, then add it to the page by clicking on it.

Step 4

Go to the Block settings that is found on the right-hand side of the page. Remember to click on that newly added block first. Then tweak it however you want it. Below is a screenshot of how it will look like initially. You can have more than one category too. It is all up to you.

Step 5

Save your page.

Hope this helps someone with their WordPress blog customizations. Can save you a lot of trouble looking and installing a plugin. Enjoy! 😊

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Notice: This article was published on August 18, 2020 and the content above may be out of date.
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