passing variables without submit button

[Spud_Nic]

I have a html form, with several <button>s, fields, and a submit button.

How can I pass the contents of the <textarea name="bob"> to a php function variable $bob, without using the submit button, and instead, just using a normal <button onclick......>

My submit button is being used for something else so I can't use that.

Thanks.

[superwormy]

onclick="javascript:window.document.form.submit();"

But you can have multiple submit buttons as well, and get their values to determine which button the clicked.