How do I change only part of a webpage?

[kenub927]

Hi
I'm just starting out as a web designer and I need help figuring something out.

The Main Content part of my web page has a white box with text and a picture on the left side, and a sidebar of links on the right side. My teacher is currently telling me to make each link on the right go to a completely new webpage that has just the content in the white box on the left changed.

Is there a way to make this all part of one webpage file? Where the links on the right only changed the content in the white box on the left and they didn't have to be linked to completely different web pages?

Thanks[IMG]file://localhost/Users/donnaspector/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image002.png[/IMG]

[David kartik]

you have to change the HTML of that page specific for that area of page you want to change .

[kenub927]

But doing that would be a different webpage just with the <div id="mainContent"> having different things in it. My question is if there is a way to do it with javascript or something different, to make it all on one page, but to change the content of that box through links on the side.
For example on the Apple website if you go to the mac page (http://www.apple.com/mac/), the top box has a few options: "Mac - Applications - Accessories - Server" but clicking on each of them doesn't take you to a new webpage. It simply changes what is in that box.

[rtrethewey]

Yes, there are ways of doing what you describe - and they're not terribly difficult. But for now, you should stick with learning the fundamentals of how webpages work using simple HTML and CSS. If you skip ahead, you'll probably end up confused.

[kenub927]

Thank you for your concern.

I'm trying to make this website for an actual company so I'm trying to make this a legit website and not merely learning the fundamentals.