<?
/*
 * Returns a shortened $content with '...' appended to the end. Also
 * removes any breaks in the content
 * 
 * todo: ensure we do not cut off html tags part way through and break the theme
 */
function shorten_content($content, $size)
{
  //$content = preg_replace("/(\<br\/\>)|(\<br\>)|(\<br \/\>)/", " ", $content);
  $content = strip_tags($content);
  if(strlen($content) < $size)
    return $content;
    
  $content = substr($content, 0, $size);
  $spaceloc = strrpos($content, " ");
  if($spaceloc)
  {
    $content = substr($content, 0, $spaceloc);
    $content.= "...";
  }
  return $content;
}
?>

<h1>Recent Articles</h1>
<?
  wp_reset_query();
  query_posts(array("orderby" => "date", "order" => "DESC", "offset" => 1, "posts_per_page" => 6));
  if(have_posts())
  {
      $count = 0;
      while(have_posts())
      {
         $count++;
         the_post();
         $postthumbnail = get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID, 'mini-thumbnail');
         if(!isset($postthumbnail) || $postthumbnail == "")
           $postthumbnail = '<img src="'.get_bloginfo('stylesheet_directory').'/img/default-thumb.jpg" alt="'. get_the_title() .'" style="border: 1px solid #333333;"/>';
         ?><div class="recent-entry">
              <div style="float:left;"><a href="<? the_permalink() ?>" title="<?=get_the_title()?>"><?=$postthumbnail?></a></div>
              <h2><a href="<? the_permalink() ?>" title="<?=get_the_title()?>">
                <?=shorten_content(get_the_title(), 60)?>
              </a></h2>
              <p class="date"><? the_time('F j, Y'); ?></p>
              <p class="content"><?=shorten_content(get_the_content(), 75)?></p>
          </div><?
          if($count == 3)
          {?><div class="clear">&nbsp;</div><?}
       }
   }
?>

.recent-entry { float:left; width: 30%; //change this width depending on how many entries you want on one line.}
.recent-entry h2 { font-size: 14px; }
.recent-entry img { padding-right: 2px; }
.recent-entry date { font-size: 9px; color: #333333; }
.recent-entry content { font-size: 10px; }