Help!

About the background, you said you did some custom code.

echo do_shortcode( '[latest-selected-content limit="3" type="post" display="title" image="thumbnail" elements="1" status="publish" orderby="dateD" css="three-columns"]' );

You can echo there also a div with a background color if that is what you need.

i had to add a
for the background to appear beacuse of floating?

can i make it like

title of post
image
exerpt
read more…

Yes, see the second screenshot https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/latest-post-shortcode/screenshots/, what you ask looks like the third icon

ok i tried that but now i just have

title
read more…
photo

ok i added content-small and that’s added an excerpt.

is there a way to have the text below the photo?

also how can i adjust the padding within the boxes so the text isn’t right up next to the photo

For having the text below the photo you should use another option for Tile Pattern and the rest is your CSS customization.