How to add recent posts widgets in blogger?

The main advantage on this Recent Posts widget is that it will show not only post titles but also post excerpts or snippets and it's easy to customize/ apply different style on it. To style it into your own design, you just have to modify the CSS style - you can change the link or background color, the size and color of text/links. 

What you can do with this widget:

• display post titles only
• change the number of posts
• change the number of characters of the post snippet/excerpt
• show the post dates

See the screenshot below:

How to add Recent Posts Widget to Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger Dashboard, then go to Layout and click on Add a Gadget link

Step 2. From the pop-up window, scroll down and choose HTML/JavaScript

Step 3. Select & Copy the code from one of the options below and paste it into the new HTML/JavaScript: 

Option 1: Recent posts widget with snippets

 <div id="hlrpsa">
<script src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/recent-posts-with-snippets.js">
</script>
<script>
var numposts = 5;var showpostdate = false;var showpostsummary = true;var numchars = 100;var standardstyling = true;
</script>
<script src="http://your-blog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&amp;alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=showrecentposts">
</script></div>
<div id="rpdr" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px;">
<a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2012/04/recent-posts-widget-for-bloggerblogspot.html" target="_blank" title="Grab this Recent Posts Widget">Recent Posts Widget</a> by <a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com" title="Recent Posts Widget">Helplogger</a></div>
<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>
<style type="text/css">
#hlrpsa a {color: #0B3861; font-size: 13px;} #rpdr {background: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigb-5lZlp1JFJq_BJdlaeh7DG_N5DuBhtI6W8mGgNOceOuDfEMF9hEK1FvyY0v0Q4avDHMUwCZqkH8-oMzuoQ782ssu7G3uVSFfG48rCPHkoFk4epvuuIWgdQ-5vktUWssHc53mQ_CrkIZ/s1600/blogger.png) 0px 0px no-repeat; padding: 1px 0px 0px 19px; height:14px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 0px;line-height:14px;}
#rpdr, #rpdr a {color:#808080;}
#hlrpsa { color: #999999; font-size: 11px; border-bottom:1px #cccccc dotted; margin-top:-10px; padding-bottom:10px;}
.hlrps a {font-weight:bold; }
.hlrpssumm {}
</style>

Option 2: Recent Posts Widget Showing Post Titles Only

 <div id="hlrpsb">
<script style="text/javascript" src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/recent-posts-with-titles-only.js"></script>
<script style="text/javascript">var numposts = 10;var showpostdate = false;var showpostsummary = false;var numchars = 100;var standardstyling = true;</script>
<script src="http://your-blog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentposts"></script></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px;" id="rpdr"><a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2012/04/recent-posts-widget-for-bloggerblogspot.html" title="Grab this Recent Posts Widget" target="_blank">Recent Posts Widget</a> by <a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com" title="Recent Posts Widget">Helplogger</a></div><noscript>Oops! Make sure JavaScript is enabled in your browser.</noscript>
<style type=text/css>
#hlrpsb a {color: #0B3861; font-size: 13px;} #rpdr {background: url( https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigb-5lZlp1JFJq_BJdlaeh7DG_N5DuBhtI6W8mGgNOceOuDfEMF9hEK1FvyY0v0Q4avDHMUwCZqkH8-oMzuoQ782ssu7G3uVSFfG48rCPHkoFk4epvuuIWgdQ-5vktUWssHc53mQ_CrkIZ/s1600/blogger.png ) 0px 0px no-repeat; padding: 1px 0px 0px 19px; height:14px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 0px;line-height:14px;}
#rpdr, #rpdr a {color:#808080;}
.bbrecpost2 {
padding-top:6px;
padding-bottom:6px;
border-bottom: 1px #cccccc dotted; }
</style>

Step 4.

• Change 5 (option 1) and 10 (option 2) with the number of posts you want to display. 
• Change false to true if you want the posts dates to appear 
• Change 100 (option 1) if you want more characters to be displayed.
• To change the color and font size of the links, modify the values in blue (links) and violet (font-size)
• To change the style of posts summary, modify the values in green (color) and orange (font size)
• Replace the your-blog text with the name of your blog or if you have a custom domain change all the bolded line with your address like in this example:

 http://www.your-site.com/feeds/posts/default....

Step 5. Save your widget. And that's it! Enjoy!