is there a way to display contents of a .txt file

Hi folks,
I have a stupid (as in I think it should be easy, but can't figure it out)
newby question.

Scenario: I have a web site which displays a variety of scheduled events. If
the event is cancelled, I need a way (one button click) that a completely
clueless person can turn on a "cancelled" message.

The solution that I've been asked to create is to put an icon on the
desktops of the clueless users. When they click on it, a cancelled message
apears on the website.

The initial solution I came up with was to just have a small section of the
page be a graphic file. When they need to post the cancel notice, they click
on their icon, and initiate a script that simply replaces the graphic file
on the server with a canned file from their PC that has the cancel notice.
Simple, and it worked.

Of course, NOW they want to be able to date stamp the message, or (ideally)
create their own message. I've gotten them to accept the concept of fixed
field length if i can figure out a way to get their input to the server.

options that I;ve thought of:
1) use an iframe (yuck) and have them fill out a client side form that
creates a html page to display thier text.(this is really hte same as the
currnt "repalce the gif" solution, but replacing a html page instead)
2) have the form create a txt file that is then auto-ftp'd to the
server, and read (like the graphic file in the current model). This is my
prefered solution, but I can't figure out how to get the .txt file read into
the existing page....

This has to be truly idiot proof - the people that will be using it are
completely technically illiterate - they can push buttons, but thats about
it.


Hope this is enough info to get some soft of ideas going....

thanks
-J