There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. Probably the easiest is simply to use the “more” button on the “write post toolbar”. The other option is to use excerpts.
Your home page currently uses the template tag <?php the_content(); ?> so change that to <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
When using excerpts WordPress will automatically pull the first 55 characters from your post and display that. If you want to change that add the following to your theme’s functions.php file …
remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'custom_trim_excerpt');
function custom_trim_excerpt($text) { // Fakes an excerpt if needed
global $post;
if ( '' == $text ) {
$text = get_the_content('');
$text = apply_filters('the_content', $text);
$text = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $text);
$text = strip_tags($text);
$excerpt_length = x;
$words = explode(' ', $text, $excerpt_length + 1);
if (count($words) > $excerpt_length) {
array_pop($words);
array_push($words, '...');
$text = implode(' ', $words);
}
}
return $text;
}
Look for the line (from the above code) $excerpt_length = x; and change x to whatever you want. This comes with a caveat – you will lose any formatting the post had but its not a big deal. If you want to maintain formatting while using <?php the_excerpt(); ?> then use the Excerpt box below the Write Post box. Anything you enter into this box will be used to display your excerpts.(summaries) Here is a screenshot to show you what I’m talking about.
More reading on the_content and the_excerpt
