featured post and bullets

[Maricar]

I had asked this in the old support forum, but it hasn't been resolved so I'm putting it up here.

My site: http://www.papergoodness.com/

1. On the home page, how do I get the featured posts on the left column to contain the post title, 290x200 image and the beginning of the post. I usually write short post and the more tag is not ideal. While the more tag works for the home page, in all other views (eg., the category for that particular post), having such a short blurb just doesn't look right. What I'm looking for is a way to have just the first few words and the image for the home page, then the full posts for everything else.

2. On the sidebar, I'd like to have all my lists show the same button. If you look at my site, both the Shop and What's New sections have these, but the All the Fun (my first level categories) don't have them. If it will help, here's what's in my sidebar_left.php:



<div id="l_sidebar">

<ul id="l_sidebarcategories">
<h2>All the Fun</h2>[*]
<?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&title_li=&dep th=1'); ?>

<?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar(2) ) : else : ?>

<li id="categories">
<h2>Categories</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&title_li=&dep th=1'); ?>[/list]

<li id="archives">
<h2>Archives</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>[/list]

<?php endif; ?>
[/list]
</div>



I'm looking forward to having these finally fixed, thanks!