diff --git a/Doc/Makefile b/Doc/Makefile
index 2bde5f10419..cc537b08b25 100644
--- a/Doc/Makefile
+++ b/Doc/Makefile
@@ -323,7 +323,8 @@ html/acks.html: ACKS $(TOOLSDIR)/support.py $(TOOLSDIR)/mkackshtml
 BOILERPLATE=texinputs/boilerplate.tex
 html/index.html: $(INDEXFILES)
 html/index.html: html/index.html.in $(BOILERPLATE) tools/rewrite.py
-	$(PYTHON) tools/rewrite.py $(BOILERPLATE) RELEASE=$(RELEASE) \
+	$(PYTHON) tools/rewrite.py $(BOILERPLATE) \
+		RELEASE=$(RELEASE) WHATSNEW=$(WHATSNEW) \
 		<$< >$@
 
 html/modindex.html: $(TOOLSDIR)/support.py $(TOOLSDIR)/mkmodindex
diff --git a/Doc/html/index.html.in b/Doc/html/index.html.in
index 86b28cc569e..70881f9f47f 100644
--- a/Doc/html/index.html.in
+++ b/Doc/html/index.html.in
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
     <style type="text/css">
       a.title { font-weight: bold; font-size: 110%; }
       ul { margin-left: 1em; padding: 0pt; border: 0pt; }
+      ul li { margin-top: 0.2em; }
+      td.left-column { padding-right: 1em; }
+      td.right-column { padding-left: 1em; }
     </style>
   </head>
   <body>
@@ -45,11 +48,25 @@
 
     <table align="center">
       <tbody>
-      <tr><td>
+        <tr>
+          <td class="left-column">
 	  <ul>
 	    <li> <a href="tut/tut.html" class="title">Tutorial</a>
 	      <br>(start here)
-
+	  </ul>
+	  </td>
+	  <td class="right-column">
+	  <ul>
+            <li> <a href="whatsnew/@WHATSNEW@.html" class="title"
+                >What's New in Python</a>
+              <br>(changes since the last major release)
+	  </ul>
+	  </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td valign="baseline" class="left-column">
+          &nbsp;
+	  <ul>
 	    <li> <a href="modindex.html" class="title">Global Module Index</a>
 	      <br>(for quick access to all documentation)
 
@@ -63,9 +80,14 @@
 	    <li> <a href="inst/inst.html" class="title">Installing
 		Python Modules</a>
 	      <br>(for administrators)
+
+	    <li> <a href="dist/dist.html" class="title">Distributing
+		Python Modules</a>
+	      <br>(for developers and packagers)
 	  </ul>
 	  </td>
-	  <td>
+	  <td valign="baseline" class="right-column">
+          &nbsp;
 	  <ul>
 	    <li> <a href="ref/ref.html" class="title">Language Reference</a>
 	      <br>(for language lawyers)
@@ -79,15 +101,11 @@
 
 	    <li> <a href="doc/doc.html" class="title">Documenting Python</a>
 	      <br>(information for documentation authors)
-
-	    <li> <a href="dist/dist.html" class="title">Distributing
-		Python Modules</a>
-	      <br>(for developers and packagers)
 	  </ul>
 	  </td>
-	</tr>
+        </tr>
         <tr>
-          <td>
+          <td valign="baseline" class="left-column">
           &nbsp;
           <ul>
             <li> <a href="http://www.python.org/doc/" class="title"
@@ -95,7 +113,7 @@
               <br>(for everyone)
           </ul>
           </td>
-          <td>
+          <td valign="baseline" class="right-column">
           &nbsp;
           <ul>
             <li> <a href="http://www.python.org/doc/howto/" class="title"

+
Tutorial (start here) - + +	+ + What's New in Python + (changes since the last major release) + +
+ + Global Module Index (for quick access to all documentation) @@ -63,9 +80,14 @@ Installing Python Modules (for administrators) + + Distributing + Python Modules + (for developers and packagers)	+	+ Language Reference (for language lawyers) @@ -79,15 +101,11 @@ Documenting Python (information for documentation authors) - - Distributing - Python Modules - (for developers and packagers)
+	(for everyone)	+