> Please excuse and guide me elsewhere if this is not the right group for
> this post.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> <OPTION value="val2">14pt</option>
> </SELECT>
As long as the <select> does not allow multiple selections, its just the
same as any other control: ${param.name}, which will give you either
"val1" or "val2" (or possibly nothing if the browser is not
standard-compliant and the user doesn't choose any option).
> and for a group of radio buttons, say:
> <input type="radio" name="headers" value="Brief"> Brief
> <input type="radio" name="headers" value="Full" checked>Full<br>
Again, the same thing: ${param.headers}, which will give you either
"Brief" or "Full". (Since you start out with one option selected, a
browser should not allow the button group to enter a state where no
option is selected, hence you should always get a value. Of course,
"should" != "will".)
This is really about the details of form submission, which are laid out
fairly explicitly in the HTML specs. See
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/interact/forms.html#h-17.13, for instance.

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John Bollinger
jobollin@indiana.edu