In J!1.0, section menu items list & link to categories; but selecting "show empty categories"  doesn't work

There is a solution to this problem but you will need to ammend the content.php file - so will need access to the server. End users may not have this access but your webmaster should be able to do this for you.

Simply

1. Go to your content.php file [found in yourdomain.com/components/com_content]
2. replace this line [about line 326] :
     $access_check_content = "\n AND b.access <= " . (int) $gid;
3. with this line:           
     $access_check_content = "\n AND ( b.access <= " . (int) $gid ." OR b.access is null)";