The Wiki and Blog sites have pages that make use of the PlaceHolderLeftActions content placeholder. I’ve mentioned this before regarding putting a web part zone below the quick launch menu. This time I wanted to list some actions for our ‘case’ system.
The code to do this? Not very hard. Naturally, we’ll actually have some code to generate our actions and links…
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftActions" runat="server">
<DIV class="ms-quicklaunchouter">
<DIV class="ms-quickLaunch" style="WIDTH: 100%">
<DIV class="ms-quicklaunchheader">Case Actions</DIV>
<div>
<TABLE class="ms-navitem" cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="100%" border="0">
<TR><TD style="WIDTH: 100%">
<A class="ms-navitem" href="http://vm-moss/Default.aspx">Action 1</A>
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<TABLE class="ms-navitem" cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="100%" border="0">
<TR><TD style="WIDTH: 100%">
<A class="ms-navitem" href="http://vm-moss/Default.aspx">Action 2</A>
</TD></TR></TABLE>
</div>
</DIV>
</DIV>
</asp:Content>
Andy Burns' Blog 
Andy, I really like where you’re going with this. I am excited to see this taken to the next level. If we could render a link list here, but keep it styled like the quicklaunch (headers and sublinks) it could be very useful. I think a CQWP and/or the rigth XSL could do the trick. I am currently using a JavaScript function I created that writes to this area inorder to render a secondary quicklaunch on every page within a site. I have to manually manipulate the code everytime the links need changing so its far from ideal. At least I only need to updated it in one spot, though. Perhaps, the method you’re describing here will allow simple list management to populate the secondary quicklaunch.
Yeah, an appropriately styled CQWP would do the job nicely. You could put a WebPartZone there, and allow users to select what they want in there.
For the CQWP you could specify a custom XSL file, maybe create a custom CSS file – all quite possible. In fact, the Context Query Ticker Web Part (see my Software page above) does this.
But yes, sounds a good approach