WP News and Scrolling Widgets is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add a reel on the side panel of your latest announcements on your site. While some themes have a Breaking News option built into them, there are others that don’t have this luxury. You may be familiar with these add-on types with alternatives like Live News, WP Latest Posts, and Simple News.

You’ll place the widgets on your site using shortcodes. However, you’ll need to customize the coed for it to act as you need it to, so some coding knowledge is needed. You can also reveal the news dates and categories if they’re relevant. While the free version is suitable for small sites, you might need to upgrade to the Pro version for larger ones.

Display your latest news

Depending on how you set up your site, it may not always be easy for your audience to find your latest posts or news. WP News and Scrolling Widgets lets you set it up on your site so that they can view it on the side panel. You also have the option to let them scroll through it so that it doesn’t take up the entire page.

Coding to suit your needs

If you have specific requirements for how the widget needs to look and respond, you’ll need to adjust the default shortcode. For instance, you can provide the news in grid form, or you can sort them via various categories. There’s an option to limit how much news is shown, while you can also enable pagination.

Pro version features

Besides these basic features, you can upgrade the free version for more functionality. You’ll find more than 120 layouts you can use for the scrolling and news section. Other options include new shortcode customizations, 45 carousel designs, new list mode views, and 13 grid-boxes, to name a few.

The hottest news on your site

WP News and Scrolling Widgets is an excellent WP plugin if you want to showcase your latest news on your site. In this way, you can generate more traffic when the audience sees another article that they like.

You can place the widget anywhere on your site, as long as it’s in a clear location. There’s also an option to use a grid view if your current theme doesn’t have that functionality.