Jeff Starr who is one of the co-authors for the book Digging Into WordPress has published a great article that goes in depth on various ways on how to display WordPress pages.
The first, most-commonly used tag is wp_list_pages(), and the second, lesser-known tag is wp_page_menu(). First we’ll explore the highly flexible wp_list_pages() template tag, and then we’ll dig into the new wp_page_menu() tag. Along the way, we’ll check out some delicious recipes, tips and tricks for creating the perfect WordPress Page Menu.
On the topic of pages, we’ve had two interesting threads popup in the forum. This one which deals with wp_page_menu and this one which asks the question what the constraints are for WordPress pages.
Thanks for pointing out that post. It is very useful.
I checked a few themes from leading theme developers and its seems wp_list_pages() is most often used while wp_page_menu() is not present.
As Justin Tadlock points out about wp_page_menu() in the comments:
“It’s a wrapper for the wp_list_pages() function that adds elements commonly-added to themes such as the containing and the “Home” link.”
@Brad Potter – It looks like these guys writing the WordPress book are using the blog as a place to print their content first to get a reaction or make corrections and then taking that and putting it in the book. Not sure if that is what they are doing but the site has been consistently pumping out great WordPress content.