 create a block of recent stories in this example you will create a list of nodes of the content type story to be shown in a block through this stepbystep process you will become familiar with some basic steps in creating a view and familiarize yourself with the views user interface creating a new view go to add new view  give your new view the name recentstories description recent stories tag story type node and click next  about the interface you have been brought to views user interface as you start you are editing the default options for the view in the 1st column on the left you can see the dropdown menu offers block for example to select settings specific only to block views in the remaining columns you will be able to add or change options by clicking on links or icons these options will then appear below this main area most likely you will need to scroll a bit to see the options appear selecting the fields to display in 3rd column locate the fields options click the   icon to add fields scroll down to defaults add fields  in the groups dropdown menu select node then check the following two fields  node post date   node title  then click add  you will be taken through the fields you added one at a time make the changes specified below for the post date field delete the post date label change the date format to custom  and the custom date format to f j y g i a do not type the single quotes for the meaning of these letter codes click on the php docs link under that box to arrive at the explanation click update  for the title field delete the title label select link this field to its node click update  scroll back up to fields and click the  uarr darr  icon to rearrange fields drag the foursided arrow next to node title so that it appears above node post date  click update to save the new field order filtering to story nodes only click the   icon next to filters  in the groups dropdown menu select node then check the node published and node type filters and click add  select the published checkbox click update select is one of and check story in the node type field click update  sorting to show most recent first scroll up to sort criteria and click the   icon in the groups dropdown menu below select node then check node post date  and click add  alternatively you may instead check node last comment time  or node updated commented date  or node updated date  select descending sort order  click update  refining the basic settings in 1st column under basic settings locate these options  items to display setting click 10  change the 10 to 4 click update style setting click unformatted  change to list  click update  adding a block display for custom options in the dropdown on the left ensure that block is selected and click add display  under block settings  click the none link next to the admin setting change block block admin description to recent stories  saving the view click save to save your work instructing drupal to show the block finally you should tell drupal to show this block configure your block by going to admin build block  locate the block in the list it is labeled recent stories  place this block in a region and click save  you may click configure to set a different title to determine which roles can view the block and on which pages it appears if you want your block on the front page only enter front  