Simple to use Get Excerpts with Thumbnail plugin uses meta data of wordpress post, to retrieve thumbnail image. It also uses another plug-in named Content Extract by Rob Shumann, to retrieve excerpt from POST. You need install Content Extract plugin before start working with this plugin.

Inspite of having found numerous plugins to get excerpts along with thumbnail images in Wordpress plugin directory. I have written this plugin to reduce number of requests that are made to MySQL database while fetching data.

== Installation ==
Install Content Extract by Rob Shumann, before installing this plugin.
The plugin is simple to install:

1. Download the zip file, from wordpress plugin directory
2. Unpack the zip.
3. Extract zip file and upload directory present in zip file to the `wp-content/plugins` directory on your WordPress installation.
4. Activate plugin
5. Go to Settings -> Get Excerpt with Thumbnail page, to change configuration for the plug-in.

Configuration of Plug-in:

Goto Settings -> Get Excerpt With Thumbnail link in your wordpress admin page.
Following four elements need to be configured.
1) Thumbnail CSS Class -> this is .css class name to be used by this plug-in. By default, CSS class name is displayed as ‘imgstyle’, change this to your desired class name and make sure it is defined in .css file of your wordpress theme.
2) More Text -> link that appears next to excerpt to read full post.
3) Post Length -> Inspite of reading entire post to retrieve excerpt, plugin just reads number of characters entered by you in this field.
Note: Once an excerpt is generated by this plugin, it will be stored in excerpt field of your wordpress post.
4) Excerpt Length -> Length of excerpt to be displayed.
Note: Always make suer Post Length is greater than or equal to Excerpt Length.

Sample usage of this plugin:

while (have_posts()) {
the_post();
$data = getExcerptsWithThumbnail();
echo $data['post_thumbnail'] . ‘<h5>’ . $data['post_title'] . ‘</h5>’ . $data['post_excerpt'] ;
}

In above code snippet, you can see getExcerptsWithThumbnail() function returns an array.
code snippet uses <h5> tag to display title of the post, you can use any of the style you want, for the presentation of thumbnail image along with excerpt.

Screen shot of the plugin, when Thumbnail Image position is used as ‘float:left’

Screen shot of plugin, when Thumbnail Image position is used as ‘float:right’

Get Excerpt with Thumbnail plugin just gives data, presentation of this data on theme pages is left to theme developer.

Reference: see category or tag pages on SearchAndhra.com to check how this plugin is used.

Please place your queries as comments to this post, so that i can reply to you.

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Following are Google accounts on Twitter.

twitter.com/Google – our central account
twitter.com/Blogger – for Blogger fans
twitter.com/GoogleCalendar – user tips & updates
twitter.com/GoogleImages – news, tips, tricks on our visual image search
twitter.com/GoogleNews – latest headlines via Google News
twitter.com/GoogleReader – from our feed reader team
twitter.com/iGoogle – news & notes from Google’s personalized homepage
twitter.com/GoogleStudents – news of interest to students using Google
twitter.com/YouTube – for YouTube fans
twitter.com/YouTubeES – en Espanol
twitter.com/GoogleAtWork - solutions for IT and workplace productivity

Geo-related
twitter.com/SketchUp – Google SketchUp news
twitter.com/3DWH – SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse
twitter.com/Modelyourtown – 3D modeling to build your favorite places
twitter.com/EarthOutreach – Earth & Maps tools for nonprofits & orgs
twitter.com/GoogleMaps – uses, tips, mashups
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap -Android app for the night sky

Ads-related
twitter.com/AdSense – for online publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsHelper – looking out for AdWords questions and tech issues
twitter.com/AdWordsProSarah – Google Guide for AdWords Help Forum
twitter.com/GoogleAnalytics – insights for website effectiveness
twitter.com/GoogleAdBuilder – re building display ads
twitter.com/GoogleRetail – for retail advertisers
twitter.com/TechnologyUK – for U.K. tech advertisers
twitter.com/InsideAdWordsDE – for German AdWords customers
twitter.com/GoogleAgencyDE – for German ad agencies
twitter.com/AdSensePT – info for Portuguese-language publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsRussia – AdWords news & tips in Russian
twitter.com/DentroDeAdWords – Spanish updates from the Inside AdWords blog
twitter.com/AdWordsAPI – AdWords API tips

Developer & technical
twitter.com/GoogleResearch – from our research scientists
twitter.com/GoogleWMC – Google Webmaster Central
twitter.com/GoogleCode – latest updates for Google developer products
twitter.com/GoogleData – Data APIs provide a standard protocol for reading and writing web data
twitter.com/app_engine – web apps run on Google infrastructure
twitter.com/DataLiberation – our initiative for complete import/export of all data
twitter.com/GoogleMapsAPI – about using Google Maps embedded in websites
twitter.com/GoogleIO – Google’s largest annual developer event

Culture, People
twitter.com/googletalks – notes from our @Google speaker series
twitter.com/googlejobs – the voice of Google recruiters

Country or Region
twitter.com/googlearabia – news from the Google Arabia Blog*
twitter.com/googledownunder – Google activities in Australia & New Zealand
twitter.com/GoogleDE – Google in Germany
twitter.com/GoogleKorea - News & notes in Korean*
twitter.com/GoogleLatAm – Latin America (en Espanol)
twitter.com/GooglePolicyIt – Notes on Google policy issues in Italy

So folks just follow these accounts on Twitter and get latest updates on google.

The requirement came when we are developing a theme for our site SearchAndhra.com, where in we need to display latest posts belongs to a specific category, in our home page and also in single post page. After checking various plugins available for WordPress we coded this plugin.

The main motive behind coding this plugin is to reduce number of queries fired against MySQL database, while listing titles of latest posts.

List Latest Posts Titles plugin uses only one query per call, to retrieve titles of latest posts belongs to a particular category.

You can download and install this List Latest Posts Titles plugin from WordPress Plugin Directory.

Post your comments if you require any further information regarding this plugin, we are ready to help you out.