The Exec-PHP plugin allows the PHP open and close tags inside the content or excerpt of your posts and pages to be executed just as in usual PHP files.

Smart Archives is a rather simple WordPress plugin that will allow you to display your archives in a much "cleaner" format.

WP Categories and Posts is an extension of the core WordPress function called wp_list_categories. This plugin adds in a template tag you can use to display categories and sub categories and the posts underneath those categories.

If you look on my left sidebar, you'll see the normal categories (wrapped in a scroll box) followed by the archives (not long enough to wrap yet). Both use standard functions for WordPress 2.1. Now, if you look in the "Pages" box or widget, you'll see that I added "Extended Archives" and "Extended Categories".

What I did was add this line of code for archives to a page (using the code, not the visual, editor), which Exec-PHP allowed me to do: <?php if (function_exists("smartArchives")) { smartArchives('type','category ID'); }?>

You need to replace type with "block", "list", or "both". I chose "list". Category ID does not need to be replaced unless you want to exclude a specific category.

To add the extended categories, I used: <?php if (function_exists("ronalfy_list_categories_and_posts")) { ronalfy_list_categories_and_posts(); }?>

(Note: If you cut and paste from this article, it won't work. The single and double quotes are "beautified". You can cut and paste, but you'll have to replace the quotes with the ones from your keyboard.)

This will allow me to view and make sure I have everything in the categories I want them in. Previously I had to go through each post, one by one. I haven't done this since installing these plugins, so mine are far from being the way I want them to be.

Visit the websites for the plugins for more details. Be careful, though, when you edit. The code on each page disappeared for me when I changed the page titles, so I had to plug them back in again.