Display short summary

You can either use the More tag or you can set your php template to display the_excerpt instead of the_content.

Also, I’d like to this with and without links taking the reader to other pages on the website when necessary.

I don’t know what you mean.

Hi,

Check with these plugins:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-excerpt/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/excerpt-editor/

Thanks,

Shane G.