Let's say you have a "Message From The President"  (MFTP) article that you want to display somewhere in your Portal Page.  You could/should use an Article Pod - case closed.

Well, what if that article is just too long?  What if it takes too much vertical space and makes the home page look "heavy"?

The solution is to use a Teaser Article.  Here is how it works:

Say your MFTP is aid #14.  

Step 1. Duplicate aid #14 (say the resulting aid # is150).

Step 2 - Edit aid #150 by deleting everything from the Main Text area EXCEPT for the first few lines.  Then add a "Read More..." link at the end of aid #150 which links to aid # 14.

Step 3 - Finally, when submitting your Portal Page request, ask to include aid #150 - not aid #14 - in the Article Pod.

Voilà!  You now have a teaser to your MFTP on the home page without taking over an entire column.