Wordpress : How do I subtract/disable a category on Index.php

Okay guys, got another problem today, two, actually. Let's talk about the second one first. Now I know the following codes make WP display posts from Category-8 on the index_theme.php template and all other categories on Archive.php. My question is, what do I do if I need to display two categories on two different templates?? What if I want to use the index_theme.php for Category-8 and another new template- index_links.php - for another category, say, Category-9 and archive.php for every other categories?? These codes are for one single category, Category-8, but I need it to work for two categories. Can any one please help me out with this?

<?php
if (is_category(8)) {
   // looking for category 8 posts
   include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/index_theme.php');
} else {
   // put this on every other category post
   include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/archive.php');
}
?>

Code (markup):

Now, here's my first problem: how do I disable/subtract these two categories on Main page/index.php so that the main page doesn't show post from these two cats????

I hope I'm making sense.
Thank you~

 

Your second problem first, solution would be to use
elseif(is_category(9) {

include blah.php;
}
Put it after the } for the IF and before the else.

And first is second, try this link to exclude categories.

http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop#Exclude_Posts_From_Some_Category

 

Thanx shallowink! first problem solved!!

I'm having some problem with my second problem though, I inserted your code like this:

<?php
if (is_category(8)) {
   include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/index_theme.php');
} 
elseif(is_category(7) {
   include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/index_portfolio.php');
}
else {
   include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/archive.php');
}
?>

Code (markup):

but it returned with this error: Parse error: parse error, unexpected '{' in C:\EP\wp\wp-content\themes\baj\category.php on line 5

 

left off the second ) around the elseif

elseif(is_category(7)) {

 

Thank you once again Shallowink! It worked this time! Thank you!

 

I was having the same problem. Thanks for this thread