milascisolo

poppacket, thank you very much, as chedonline said great solution.

<div id="rightcol">

    <?php

// this is where you enter the IDs of which categories you want to display

$display_categories = array(5,6,7);

foreach ($display_categories as $category) { ?>

    <div class="clearfloat">

      <?php query_posts("showposts=1&cat=$category");

	    $wp_query->is_category = false;

		$wp_query->is_archive = false;

		$wp_query->is_home = true;

		 ?>

      <h3><a href="<?php echo get_category_link($category);?>"><?php 

	// this is where the name of each category gets printed	  

	  single_cat_title(); ?></a></h3>

      <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

      <?php

// this grabs the image filename

	$values = get_post_custom_values("Image");

// this checks to see if an image file exists

	if (isset($values[0])) {						

?>

      <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("Image"); echo $values[0]; ?>" alt="" /></a>

      <?php } ?>

      <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" class="title"><?php 

// this is where title of the article gets printed	  

	  the_title(); ?>&raquo;</a>

      <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

      <?php endwhile; ?>

    </div>

    <?php } ?>

  </div><!--END RIGHTCOL-->

but i still have a problem. as i am not so into wp, i couldn’t port it to this code.

i know this will be too much but can you help?

thanks :$

edit:
I’m trying to solve this problem but getting a T_ELSE error on line 65 which is
<?php else: ?>

Here is the code i’m trying to replace the old right column with yours

<div id="rightcol">
<div class="clearfloat">
<?php query_posts("showposts=4&offset=1"); // show 4 latests posts excluding the latest ?>
      <h3><a href="<?php echo get_category_link($category);?>"><?php 

	// this is where the name of each category gets printed	  

	  single_cat_title(); ?></a></h3>
  <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
      <?php

// this grabs the image filename

	$values = get_post_custom_values("Image");

// this checks to see if an image file exists

	if (isset($values[0])) {						

?>

      <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("Image"); echo $values[0]; ?>" alt="" /></a>

      <?php } ?>

      <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" class="title"><?php 

// this is where title of the article gets printed	  

	  the_title(); ?>&raquo;</a>

      <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

 <?php endwhile; ?>
<?php else: ?>
 <!-- Error message when no post published -->
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
    <?php } ?>
</div>

I still couldn’t make it to show the category name and title.