Yep this works.  I've done similar things to make blocks appear on specific pages.  You don't technically need path_auto to accomplish this.  If you use the path module, you can manually set up each page with a path (e.g. news/todaysnews). What pathauto does for you is to automatically set the "path" alias names based on content type and/or taxonomy term plus the page title. You can always override a particular page by specifically setting its path, provided you have the path module enabled.
 
Menu sections can easily be reorganized into different blocks by following the basic steps.
  1. Make sure menu module is enabled and add a menu item.
  2. Make sure you have administer menu priviledges.
  3. Make a new menu block using "Add a Menu" under Administer->Menus
  4. Move or add a menu item to your new menu by changing its "Parent Item" to the newly created menu.
  5. Now go to Administer->Blocks to control the placement of your newly created menu block in the normal way, as well as which paths it might appear on.
Dave

From: support-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:support-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Pherowze
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 6:43 AM
To: support@drupal.org
Subject: Re: [support] Menus

Path auto?....Let me find out what it is and how to use it... Kobus, I was unable to separate the menus using block admin pages...

Thanks.

On 6/15/06, Greg Knaddison - GVS <Greg@growingventuresolutions.com> wrote:
On 6/15/06, Kobus Myburgh <ITBJDM@puknet.puk.ac.za> wrote:
> > ...I have the main header with the primary links
> > which never changes regardless of the section... on the menubar on
> the left
> > or right of the page I will have a submenu which will change whenever
> I go
> > to a different section......
> >
> > Can this be achieved using drupal...? If so how....?
>
> You can use a custom block with php if-then conditions or switches. Not
> sure if there is an easier way.
>
> If you don't know how to code, it is perhaps better to make separate
> blocks with the menu links in them and only set their visibility in
> block admin pages, otherwise you can make one block with different PHP
> conditions to display the links as they should be per page.
>

If you use pathauto to create your paths for you then you could set up
a system that splits your "different sections" into different URLs on
the site such as:

forum/
blog/
news/

And then create blocks appropriate for those sections and in the block
visibility settings set the blocks to only show on forum/* pages or
blog/* pages as appropriate.

With pathauto it's possible to separate by either node type (as shown
above) or by the lowest weighted taxonomy term in the lowest weighted
taxonomy.

Regards,
Greg


--
Greg Knaddison | Growing Venture Solutions
Denver, CO | http://growingventuresolutions.com
Technology Solutions for Communities, Individuals, and Small Businesses
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--
Warmest Regards,

Pherowze