Querying posts from only one category and exluding the latest post

Question

I want to run the loop so that it retrieves posts from only one particular category AND outputs only 4 posts AND excludes the latest one.

To query only one category, I found this:

<?php query_posts('cat=1'); ?> 
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while (have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?> 
<?php the_content(); ?> 
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

And to exclude the latest post and output only 4 posts, I found this:

<?php query_posts('posts_per_page=4&offset=1'); ?> 
<?php if (have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?> 
<?php the_content(); ?> 
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

However, I don't know how to combine the two. Can I do that, or is there a better way?

Answer 1

Try this code

global $myOffset;
$myOffset = 1;
$paged = get_query_var('paged') ? get_query_var('paged') : 1; //Use 'page' instead of 'paged' if you are on home page

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'cat'=> 1,    //Selecting post category by ID to show
    'posts_per_page' => 4,  //No. of posts to show
    'offset' => $myOffset,  //Eexcluding latest post
    'paged' => $paged       //For pagination
);

$loop = new WP_Query( $args );

while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();
    the_content(__('Continue Reading'));             
endwhile;