We all know how to rename the URL path using the Path Module in Drupal now, but wouldn't it be nice if Drupal did this automatically? It can with the Pathauto module. This is a third party module available through drupal.org that you have to install. This is not part of the Drupal core... although it should be in my opinion.

Once it's installed and enabled, you have to go and turn on all the indexing in the Pathauto settings. You have various options here, but to get it running with minimal effort, just enable all the settings. This includes:

General Settings

• Create Index Aliases
• Bulk Generate Index Aliases

Node Path Settings

• Bulk update node paths
• Create Feed Alises

Category Path Settings

• Bulk update category paths
• Create Feed Aliases

User-tracker path settings

• Bulk update user-tracker paths
• Create Feed Aliases

User path settings

• Bulk update user paths

What this will do is make sure that all of your old nodes (posts) have a friendly URL based on the subject and it will create the same for all new posts on your Drupal installation.

After this, you no longer need to create your own URLs... although you still can. Drupal rocks!

Link to download Pathauto module.