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How do I display latest postings in WordPress?

I have a wordpress site. My challenge? I wish to have my home page display only my latest 5 entries, yet want to have categories for my blog (when clicked upon) display all of the previous posts for that category, not just 5. I am not a programmer so I don't know or understand much about coding. However, I have been told that this is not possible. Is that really the case? Is the program as inflexible as this? Or is it just a matter of taking time to program in a different number of posts for the homepage versus the other page displays.

Dave's Answer:

I know of no-one more expert on WordPress than my good friend Sherman Hu of WordPress Tutorials.com, so I asked him for his assistance on this question. Here's his answer:

Great question. In short, this can be done.

To display the latest 5 entries, simple go to your "Options" tab, "Reading" sub-tab. You'll arrive at your 'Reading Options' page.

Under the heading 'Blog Pages', you'll see the field to modify to reveal the number of
past entries in a view.

The default setting is 10. Change this number to 5. Then click the "Update Options" button.

On your home page, it should now reveal only your past 5 entries. Refresh your home page to reveal the latest changes.

On your category page, it may reveal 5 entries, but your reader can click on the hyperlink below the bottom entry to read more of the category's entries.

Here's an illustration:

Hope this helps!

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Categorized: Blogs and RSS Feeds (Article 7335)
Tagged: blogging, blogs, wordpress
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Comments

I want to display 5 in my home and 7 in my category pages.
Please help me to fix this.

Posted by: kulandai at March 25, 2009 7:14 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!