Navigation is one of the most important aspects of a WordPress theme, since users need to find their way around blogs. But before WordPress 2.7, there wasn’t really an automated way of doing this. You had to use the wp_list_pages() function and/or hardcode links into your theme files.

But that’s going to change with the upcoming release of WordPress with the help of wp_page_menu. It’s basically a better version of wp_list_pages() and lets you choose which pages you want to link to in your menu. Even better is that it lets you link to the blog’s homepage.

Justin Tadlock has a detailed tutorial on integrating this function into your WordPress 2.7-ready themes. Be sure to make them backwards-compatible too!