Adding articles with preview image and text

are you asking about creating an archive page with a thumbnail image + post excerpt + a bit of meta data?

i am assuming since you are asking the question in the forum that the archive or category template in your current theme does not already have this option built in.

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how comfortable do you feel with making changes to your template files if needed?
do you have a child theme set up?
do you have a recent backup of your website?
do you have FTP access to your website

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i know of a plugin(not free) to create what you are asking about if you prefer not to do any coding

happy to hear you have FTP access and child theme set up
consider an automated backup solution like vaultpress or backup buddy (both are plugins)

if your theme does not have a template already set up to display as you desire and you don’t want to make code any changes…
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name of plugin is conductorplugin.com
you should chat with he support team on conductorplugin.com to explain exactly the display you want before you make any purchase.

I have used conductor plugin to display small image with content and the meta data (ie author, date, category name).

Here is a quick overview of what I would do to create display like you describe: (not all steps)

set a category to gather all of the posts I want to display together.
with conductorplugin I can choose to show excerpt instead of full content.
I can specific how many words to show in the excerpt and display a read more link.
There are other options but I think those are the ones you are looking for. Set a category for the posts you want to display.

no template changes are required.

if you do decide to use conductorplugin, I can share an expanded list of steps that I have used when I set my plugin options up.