Kailey (trepmal)

the yg_recentposts() function already echos the output, so it’s not necessary to re-echo it.

For styling, you can play with the CSS. Something like this should add a box around each item

ul.advanced-recent-posts li { border: 1px solid #444; }

If your theme doesn’t have alternate sidebars, you might have to use the template tag:

<?php yg_recentposts($args); ?>

I also have a variation of this plugin that allows for shortcodes that can be added directly to your posts like

[amrp]
[amrp limit=3 excerpt=150]

Sorry about the delay in responding – about half way through this note I lost my internet connection… Long story short, I’m working from my phone…
****
In my functions.php

add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );
set_post_thumbnail_size( 150, 150 );
add_image_size( '300-square', 300, 300, true );

in index.php, outside of the loop:

<?php

if (has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID )) {
echo '<div style="text-align:center;padding:20px; background:#bbb;">';
echo get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID , '300-square');
echo '</div>';
}

?>

in index.php, inside the loop: 

<?php

if (has_post_thumbnail()) {
echo '<div style="text-align:center;padding:20px; background:#bbb;">';
the_post_thumbnail('300-square');
echo '</div>';
}

?>

functions.php
index.php
live test site

As a core function, has_post_thumbnail() should find your uploads directory just fine.

Are you able to turn debug on? Maybe there’s some strange disconnect happening… http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php#Debug

Alternatively, what if you replace $post->ID with an known ID, and add an else statement?

$id = 'known-id';
if ( has_post_thumbnail( $id ) ) {
    echo get_the_post_thumbnail( $id, 'helio_slider', array('class' => 'slidimg') );
} else {
    echo 'did not pass the has_post_thumbnail() check';
}

the “Edit this Page” will link will only appear when you’re logged. it’s simply a convenience for you if you’re browser your own site and see the need to edit a page/post.

if you really want to remove it, you’ll need to open up your theme to edit, find the references to edit_post_link() and remove them.

awesome!

Have you checked out the get_metadata() function yet?

http://xref.wordpress.org/trunk/ reference

glad you got things working out