I have a template with a top-mounted horizontal menu with three main options with this code:

<ul>
<li <?php if(is_home()){echo 'class="current_page_item"';}?>><a href="<?php bloginfo('siteurl'); ?>">Home</a>

^ This one takes the user to the main page.

<li><a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>>Articles</a>
<ul><?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&title_li=&dep th=2'); ?></ul>
</li>

^ This one creates a dropdown menu listing every topic present on the blog.

<?php wp_list_pages('title_li=&depth=2');?>
</ul>

^ This one lists all pages on the blog as separate horizontal menu items.


What I want to do:

1) Create multiple category dropdowns where one would have, say all the categories that are kinds of beer, and another one have all the categories that are kinds of cheese.

2) Specify categories as links. So one of those horizontal menu items could be a post rather than a page.


How do I do this?

You'll have to dig through the WordPress Codex to get an exact answer.

1. For multiple category drop downs you can display sub-categories.

2. If I understand correctly... you want to have the titles of posts from a specific category in a horizontal menu. If you use the loop you can just display a specific categories posts, limit the results to a specific number, only include the post title. Use an unordered list. Use CSS to make it display horizontally and style the way you desired.

A quick search of google will provide multiple ways to do both of these items. Hope that helps.