Is Custom Fields the answer? If so, how?

[jonbey]

(I have also posted this question to Wordpress.org, but lack faith in the community there to reply .... )

I have started adding boxes (an HTML table aligned right) to the top right of some articles which lists hand picked alternative pages.
I know that I should probably do this with divs and css, but while looking in to that came across another idea - using the custom fields.
Thing is, I tried custom fields once before but it still displayed some code on the screen even when nothing was in the field.
OK, maybe I need to show you what I am talking about. See here:http://www.motleyhealth.com/fitness/...e-home-workout
On the right is a menu "More Workouts". So I am using code like this for that:

<table width="33%" align="right"><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="top"><h3>More Workouts</h3><ul>    <li> .... links ..... </li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>

Which works, but obviously not ideal.
So, how do I set up a custom field (assuming that this is the best option) which will only show when I add content to that field - and not just show a blank square when there is no content.
I am going through the articles slowly, there are quite a lot so it is a case of work in progress.

[chipbennett]

Use get_post_meta(). Then test for an empty string. e.g.:

 $my_meta_value = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'some_meta_key', true );

if ( '' != $my_meta_value ) {
    // Custom field meta key has a value, so 
    // output the table code here
}