How to Display the most recent post from a specific category in WordPress?

Alright I don’t know if I look like a WordPress Guru or something, but I get questions regarding wordpress alot in the email and often times via Direct Message on my twitter account. Well this was a question that was asked to me in email in response to the new design of Balkhis. How do I display a post from a specific category in wordpress.

Before I tell you how you can do this, I want to share what you can use this for. This can be used to make a custom homepage for your blog. If you want to show your posts on some other pages in the blog from a specific category this is the way you would do it.

Add this code where you want to display the post

<?php
query_posts(‘showposts=1&cat=3′);
while(have_posts()) : the_post();
?>
<ul>
<li><h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>

<ul><li><?php the_content_limit(520); ?></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<?php endwhile; ?>

At the top where I say showpost= change the number to how many posts you want to display, and cat=3 is the id of the category, so change the ID of the category to pick which category will you be displaying.

I am using a limit post plugin for wordpress to limit the content. You can download one for yourself also.

Now you can display the most recent post from a specific category