How to list first (etc. 5) posts as new?

Question

I am looking for a plugin or a way to list first five posts as new. It should be just a small picture added in the index.php. Any ideas of how I could achieve this? Thanks!

Answer 1

This is pretty easy.

//Include this above your loop
$i = 0; //Counter

if(have_posts())while(have_posts())the_post();

    //include this in your loop
    $i++;
    if($i <= 5)
        echo "<img src='http://urltoinewimage' alt='Image Title' />";
    //Stop including in your loop

    the_title();
    the_content();
endwhile; else:
endif;

Answer 2

use custom query for first 5 latest posts.

query_posts( 'posts_per_page=5', 'orderby' => 'date', 'order' => 'DESC' );

The execute the query as usual and while displaying you can show them in a separate container or wherever you want to. Also, apply a CSS class with each post title (or whatever you want to target) and finally in your CSS you may show the image. Instead you can also use HTML IMG tag to show the image. Choice is all yours.