How to use HTML forms without a server

Question

I am not a web-developer and want to understand the better way to pass variables. In the past I have used various ways to pass things to java script functions. I have never

Answer 1

Yes you absolutely can use forms/inputs/any kind of html element and never talk to a server, just don't expect to store that data! You're right about using events (like the onsubmit one you mentioned) to trigger Javascript functions.

Here is a quick and dirty example (heavy on the dirty) that does sorta kinda what you'd like. Note that instead of waiting for the form to be submitted before the color change, I go ahead and do it immediately after they choose a gender from the dropdown.

http://jsfiddle.net/wG8K4/1/