using the excerpt funchtion

Here is the page I am working with:

http://www.shesaballer.com/index.php

I would like to use the excerpt function instead of full stories being on the front page. and when the users click on “more” then it takes them to the single article page of course

and i would like for each story excerpt to be looped into a seperate table (if possible)

here is the code for that main page

<?php get_header(); ?>

<!-- BEGINNING OF MAIN ----------------------------------------------------------------------->		

		<table border="0" width="100%" id="table3" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
			<tr>
		<td width="196">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="196">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="292">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="13" rowspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="277" align="center">&nbsp;</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
		<td width="684" colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">
		<center>

		<table border="1" width="98%" id="table4" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" bordercolorlight="#000000" bordercolordark="#000000">
			<tr>
				<td>

		<div id="content">

	<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>

		<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

			<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
				<font face="Verdana" size="3"><b><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"
				title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>

</b>
				<font face="Verdana" size="1"><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> <!-- by <?php the_author() 

?> -->

				<div>
				<font face="Verdana" size="2">
					<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry &raquo;'); ?>
				</div>

				<p><?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?>
				<font face="Verdana" size="1">Posted in <?php 

the_category(', ') ?> | <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?>  <?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment 

»', '% Comments »'); ?></font></p>
			</div>

<hr>
		<?php endwhile; ?>

		<div>
			<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link('&laquo; Older 

Entries') ?></div>
			<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries 

&raquo;') ?></div>
		</div>

	<?php else : ?>

		<h2 class="center"><font face="Verdana" size="3">Not Found</font></h2>
		<p class="center">Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't 

here.</p>
		<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . "/searchform.php"); ?>

	<?php endif; ?>

	</div>			

<br />

			<br />	

				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>

		</td>
		<td width="277" align="center" valign="top" rowspan="3">

		<embed pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"
src="http://www.yourminis.com/Dir/GetContainer.api?uri=yourminis/cbssportsline/mini:cbsslscoreboard"
wmode="transparent" width="280" height="360"
FlashVars="defaultleague=WNBA&height=350&width=270&uniqueID=id1185570459808&xheight=360&xwidth=280&refreshtime=60000&newwindow=1&accountname=cbssportsline&uri=yourminis%2Fcbssportsline%2Fmini%3Acbsslscoreboard&"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed>

		<BR />

	<form action="http://www.shesaballer.com/cgi-bin/formmail/formmail.pl" method="post">

    <p align="center">
    <font color="#FFFFFF"><b>
    <font face="Verdana">JOIN OUR MAILING LIST</font><br />

    &nbsp;<input type="hidden" value="mail@shesaballer.com" name="recipient">
    <input type="hidden" value="Mailing List" name="subject">
  <input maxLength="70" size="26" name="Email: "></b>

<br />
	<font face="Verdana" size="1">We will not sell or share your email address</font><br />
            <input type="submit" value="Submit Email" name="submit">
            <input type=hidden name="redirect" value="http://www.shesaballer.com/">

      </p>

      </form>

		&nbsp;</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
		<td width="196">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="196">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="292">&nbsp;</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
		<td width="196">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="196">&nbsp;</td>
		<td width="292">&nbsp;</td>
			</tr>
		</table>
		</td>
	</tr>
	</table>

		</td>
	</tr>
</table>

<!-- END OF MAIN ------------------------------------------------------------------->

<?php get_footer(); ?>