How to get data from html forms - php

Question

my html page has a number of textboxes (in div tags that show/hide) and I want the data in them to send to a text document once the submit button is clicked at the bottom.
I'm fairly new to html coding and have limited php/jquery experience so if theres an easy way to do this would be appreciated. Heres the current code:
My JS:
function showhide(layer_ref) {
var element = document.getElementById(layer_ref);
var state = element.style.display
if (state == 'block') {
state = 'none';
} else {
state = 'block';
}
if (document.all) { //IS IE 4 or 5 (or 6 beta)
eval( "document.all." + layer_ref + ".style.display = state");
}
if (document.layers) { //IS NETSCAPE 4 or below
document.layers[layer_ref].display = state;
}
if (document.getElementById &&!document.all) {
hza = document.getElementById(layer_ref);
hza.style.display = state;
}
}
The HTML:
<form>
Name: <input type="text" name="name">
Date: <input type="numbers" name="date">
<p>Question 1</p>
<div id="div1" style="display: none;">
<img src="q1.jpg" alt="some_text">
<TEXTAREA Name="q1answer" ROWS=20 COLS=100></TEXTAREA>
</div>
<!-- same code pattern for div2 to div7 -->
<p>Question 8</p>
<div id="div8" style="display: none;">
<img src="q8.jpg" alt="some_text">
<TEXTAREA Name="q8answer" ROWS=20 COLS=100></TEXTAREA>
</div>
</form>

Answer 1

You could use php GET or POST to recive data from the HTML Form.
Here is a tutorial that could help you: http://www.tizag.com/phpT/postget.php

Answer 2

Change your HTML form tag into this:
<form action='page.php' method='post'>
Add a submit button before the end of form tag
<input type=submit name='submit' value='submit'>
Change the name tag of your name input field
<input type="text" name="name">
into (you cant use name as a name of the input)
<input type="text" name="myname">
And add this PHP code:
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){ //if button is clicked do this:
$name = $_GET['myname'];
$date = $_GET['date'];
$answer1 = $_GET['q1answer'];
$answer2 = $_GET['q2answer'];
$answer3 = $_GET['q3answer'];
$answer4 = $_GET['q4answer'];
$answer5 = $_GET['q5answer'];
$answer6 = $_GET['q6answer'];
$answer7 = $_GET['q7answer'];
$answer8 = $_GET['q8answer'];
}
else{
//if button is not clicked do this
}