theozero

With this plugin you can create a link to post-new.php (the place to create a new page) that includes the desired parent_id of the new page. This allows you to create links in the front end of the website like “Add a new page to this section” or “Create a new sub-page”. This is extremely useful when developing custom themes to add useful backend links on the front end of the site for users who have editing access. For using wordpress as a CMS, you really want to let the user avoid going through the clunky manage pages interface…
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>This should be a feature of wordpress</li>
<li>I can’t believe this isn’t built into wordpress</li>
<li>This has to rely on javascript because there’s no suitable hook to do it another way</li>
<li>Did I mention this should be built into wordpress?</li>
</ul>
<h4>Feedback</h4>
Doubt you’ll have any, but if you do, you can go to my website (http://theoephraim.com) 
I was thinking about making some functions to actually spit out the links, but since were talking about developing custom themes, you may as well just hardcode it.
<h3>License</h3>
Copyright (C) 2010 by Theo Ephraim
You may use, redistribute and/or modify this programm under the terms of the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html" rel="nofollow ugc">GNU General Public License by the Free Software Foundation</a>.
The programm is distributed as free software without any warranty.

New Page In Section Links

Provides the ability to set the parent_id of a new page from within the link to the new page form

ambrosite

IMPORTANT: This plugin is not compatible with the Mystique theme, nor is it compatible with the WordPress 3.x custom menu system (that is, menus created using the drag-and-drop menu builder under Appearance->Menus). If you want to create an unlinked parent menu item with the Mystique theme, install Mark Jaquith’s ‘Page Links To’ plugin, and put a ‘#’ (hash/pound) mark in the ‘Point to this URL:’ field to create a dummy link. For the WP3 menu builder, use a ‘Custom Link’ with a ‘#’ mark in the URL field. Refer to the documentation in the WP Codex if you need more help: https://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Menus_Screen#Custom_Links
When activated, this plugin unlinks parent pages (that is, pages that have child pages underneath them in a hierarchy) in page menus and lists. It affects the output of wp_list_pages and wp_page_menu, as well as all plugins and widgets that use those functions.
The plugin works by turning the parent page links into ‘dummy links’. That is, it replaces the href attribute on parent menu items with a ‘#’ (hash/pound) mark. A dummy link is just like a regular link, except that it leads back to the current page when clicked. The dummy links are given an inline style “cursor: default” to prevent the mouse pointer from turning into a hand when hovering over unlinked menu items.
<h4>Options</h4>
To configure the plugin options, go to the Settings menu in the WordPress admin panel and click on ‘Unlink Parent Pages’.
Use Dummy Links 
Turned on by default as of Unlink Parent Pages version 1.3. If you uncheck this box, the plugin will unlink the parent pages by replacing the anchor tags with span tags. In some themes, this may cause problems with CSS styling. In order to fix this, you would need to add an additional selector to any rule that targets the anchor tags (see the FAQ for more information). If you are not experienced in writing CSS selectors, then it is strongly recommended to stick with dummy links.
Unlink Current Page 
Unlink the current page, in addition to the parent pages.
Remove Link Titles 
Remove the title attribute from the links (stops the tooltip from popping up when the mouse hovers over the menu items). This doesn’t have anything to do with unlinking parent pages, but it’s something a lot of people want, so I decided to include it.
Maximum Depth 
The maximum depth setting controls how many levels in the hierarchy of pages are to be unlinked. It works exactly like the ‘depth’ option for wp_list_pages, as follows:
<ul>
<li>0 (default) Unlinks all parent pages, anywhere in the page hierarchy.</li>
<li>1 Unlinks top-level parent pages only.</li>
<li>2, 3, … Unlinks parent pages to the given depth.</li>
<li>-1 Do not unlink any pages (specify individual pages instead).</li>
</ul>
Unlink Specific Pages 
You can specify which pages you want unlinked, using a comma-separated list of page IDs (example: 3,7,31). It works exactly like the ‘exclude’ option for wp_list_pages. If you want only the specified pages to be unlinked, then set max depth to -1.

Ambrosite Unlink Parent Pages

Unlinks parent pages in page menus and lists. Useful for creating dropdown menus with top-level placeholders. Affects the output of wp_list_pages and  …

New Page In Section Links vs Ambrosite Unlink Parent Pages