i dont need to "technicaly" or "directly" manipulate the html, i just need to grab the html and then echo it modified.

let me rephrase this...

when i run this....
<?php function test(){ ?>
data
<?php } ?>

everytime a run test() in php, the html outside of the tags is outputted (data)

i want to take the data in test() and be able to do anything with it that i could do with a normal string.

i DO NOT want to do this.
echo "html here..";

or

<?php
$data = <<<_
html here...
_;
echo $data;
?>

i want to have the text outside of the php tags, grab it, and put it into string so i can echo it later. I cant quite phrase why i need to have the origional html outside of the php tags but you will just have to trust me that it is what i want. I dont know if i am on the right track with using a function to get the data, but i cant find any other way to get it,

i have tried doing something like this: <?php function test(){ return ?>html here...<?php ; } ?>
but nothing is returned.

Thanks for your help so far.