If you want to do it without using a plugin but within a template for example you can do it this way:
in the template file:
<?php
$postslist = get_posts('numberposts=3&order=DESC&orderby=date');
foreach ($postslist as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
<div class="entry">
<h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
Just change the number of posts of 3 to how ever you want.
and in the functions file to reduce the excerpt length limit from the default of 55
add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');
function my_excerpt_length($length) {
return 20; }
just change the number 20 to what you want, I used 20.
