As
dwatson06 mentioned the only way without a page reload achieved with a hyper-link or form submit is the dreaded JavaScript (Nee LiveScript). The reason I say 'dreaded' is that many Monks will tell you its inherently unsafe (esp. for reading Cookies etc) its also notoriously unstable between different UAs (Browsers). Many folks turn it off as a default, so you will have to take that into consideration as well.
If you haven't been put off yet here's a link (offsite) to a good resource for JavaScript: javascript.internet.com. However I would seriously consider the server side model as I have already stated - too many things can|will go wrong with the client side approach.
