Changing a text area via menu list

Ok, this is going to sound odd I think..

I have a page with a textarea and a menu / list.
I need to be able to select an entry from the menu / list, download a text file, and load the content into the textarea (replacing anything that was there).

I can do it all in PHP / Javascript, but was wondering if it is possible without the page reloading?

Many thanks in advance.

Andy

The page has to reload, the textbox does not however, if you use frames. I did something somewhat like that with my PHP chat room.

You can use XMLHTTP (http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=30449) to read the content of the file from javascript.