If you’re upgrading from a previous release of Draft List (i.e. pre version 2.5) please check out the FAQ – a number of changes have been made in this release that you need to be aware of Draft List allows you to both manage your draft and scheduled posts more easily but also to promote them by show
PricingFree downloadThe WordPress.org download is free. Pro versions, add-ons or external services may cost extra.
CompatibilityRequires WordPress 4.6 and PHP 7.4.
SourceWordPress plugins · Nov 3, 2026
01 / Source details
Aboutthistool.
If you’re upgrading from a previous release of Draft List (i.e. pre version 2.5) please check out the FAQ – a number of changes have been made in this release that you need to be aware of
Draft List allows you to both manage your draft and scheduled posts more easily but also to promote them by showing them on your site via shortcode or widget – use it to show your visitors what’s “coming soon” or as a great SEO tool.
How easy is it display a list of draft posts? Here’s an example of how you could use it in a post or page…
This would display a list of up to 5 draft posts in ascending modified date sequence, with an icon displayed to the right of each if the draft is scheduled.
Key features include…
Both widgets and shortcodes are available for you to show off your up-coming content
Output is highly configurable – create your own look by using a template, identify scheduled posts with an icon, sequence the results in various ways and even narrow down the results to a specific timeframe
Click on any of the drafts posts listed to edit them
A meta box in the editor screen allows you to omit individual posts from any list outputs
Tested up to PHP 8.2
Fully complies with WordPress coding standards
Compliant with the stronger WordPress VIP coding standards, as well as compatibility with their platform
Community plugin – visit the Github page to get involved with the latest code development, request enhancements and report issues
Iconography is courtesy of the very talented Janki Rathod .
Shortcode Parameters
The following shortcode parameters are valid…
cache= : How long to cache the output for, in hours. Defaults to half an hour. Set to No to not cache at all. Whenever you save a post any cache will be cleared to ensure that any lists are updated.
date= : The format of any dates output. This uses the PHP date formatting system – read here for the formatting codes. Defaults to F j, Y, g:i a .
folder= : The scheduled icon will be, by default, the one in the plugin folder named scheduled.png . However, use this parameter to specify a folder within your theme that you’d prefer the icon to be fetched from.
limit= : The maximum number of draft items to display. The default is 0, which is unlimited.
order= : This is the sequence that you’d like to order the results in. It consists of 2 codes – the first is either t , m or c to represent the title, modified date or created date and the second is a or d for ascending or descending. Therefore order=td will display the results in descending title sequence. The default is descending modified date.
pending= : True or false, where to include pending posts in the result. By default, pending posts will not be included.
scheduled= : True or false, where to include scheduled posts in the result. By default, scheduled posts will be included.
template= : This is the template which formats the output. See the section below on * *Templates** for further information.
type= : This allows you to limit the results to either post or page . The default is both.
words= : The minimum number of words that must be present in the draft for it to be included. Defaults to 0.
To restrict the posts to a particular timeframe you can use the following 2 parameters. You simply state, in words, how long ago the posts must be dated for e.g. “2 days”, “3 months”, etc.
created= : his reflects how long ago the post/page must have been created for it to be listed. For example 6 months would only list drafts that were created in the last 6 months.
modified= : This reflects how long ago the post/page must have been modified last for it to be listed. For example 6 months would only list drafts that have been modified in the last 6 months.
Templates
The template parameter allows you to format the output by allowing you to specify how each line of output will display. A number of tags can be added, and you can mix these with HTML. The available tags are as follows…
{{ul}} – Specifies this is an un-ordered list (i.e. bullet point output). This MUST be specified at the beginning of the template if it is to be used.
{{ol}} – Specifies this is an ordered list (i.e. number output). This MUST be specified at the beginning of the template if it is to be used.
{{icon}} – This is the icon that indicates a scheduled post.
{{draft}} – This is the post detail and is the only REQUIRED tag.
{{author}} – This is the name of the post author.
{{author+link}} – This is the name of the post author with, where available, a link to their URL.
{{words}} – The number of words in the draft post.
{{chars}} – The number of characters (exc. spaces) in the post.
{{chars+space}} – The number of characters (inc. spaces) in the post.
{{created}} – The date/time the post was created.
{{modified}} – The date/time the post was last modified.
{{category}} – Shows the first category assigned to the post.
{{categories}} – Shows all categories assigned to the post, comma separated.
If {{ul}} or {{ol}} are specified then all the appropriate list tags will be added to the output. If neither are used then it’s assumed that line output will be controlled by yourself.
Omitting Posts/Pages from Results
If you wish to omit a page or post from the list then you can do this in 3 ways…
01By giving the post a title beginning with an exclamation mark. You can then remove this before publishing the post.
02The post and page editor has a meta box, where you can select to hide the page/post.
03You can add a custom field to a page/post with a name of ‘draft_hide’ and a value of ‘Yes’
Edit Link
If the current user can edit the draft item being listed then it will be linked to the appropriate edit page. The user then simply needs to click on the draft item to edit it.
There are separate permissions for post and page editing, so an editor with just one permission may find that they can only edit some of the draft items.
Drafts that don’t have a title will not be shown on the list UNLESS the current user has edit privileges for the draft – in this case a title of [No Title] will be shown.
Using a Widget
Sidebar widgets can be easily added. In Administration simply click on the Widgets option under the Appearance menu. Draft Posts will be one of the listed widgets. Drag it to the appropriate sidebar on the right hand side and then choose your options.
Save the result and that’s it! You can use unlimited widgets, so you can add different lists to different sidebars.
See it in action
A closer look.
An example output of draft posts
02 / Source details
Gettingstarted.
This plugin can be found and installed via the Plugin menu within WP Admin (Plugins -> Add New). Alternatively, it can be downloaded from WordPress.org and installed manually…
01Upload the entire unzipped plugin folder to your wp-content/plugins/ directory, either from WP Admin (Plugins -> Add New), your favorite FTP client or any other file manager
02Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WP Admin (Plugins -> Installed Plugins)
03 / Source details
Frequently asked questions.
I’ve upgraded from a version before 2.5 and I hear things have changed. What’s happening?
From version 2.5, 2 features have been removed…
01Caching has gone. This release has had some massive performance improvements which means it was no longer needed. It, more often than not, caused issues and many people have native caching on their site anyway.
02The draft menus options have been removed. I’ve moved that functionality off to another plugin named Draft Links . If you want the menu links back, please install that. Why have they been removed? For a start, some people were installing this plugin JUST for that functionality, so it made sense for me to separate it. Additionally, the next FAQ answer is part of this too…
Do you support this plugin on forks of WordPress?
No. It was developed for WordPress and so forks remain unsupported. I have no intention of developing and testing this on any other version.
Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?
Please report security bugs found in the source code of the undefined plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program . The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.
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