Java Development Tools

This is one of those questions that exposes me for the newbie I am, but here goes.

I've been through the help files and the forums, and I can't find what I would think is a fairly simple mechanism: changing the active (revealed) tab with the click of a menu button or text link.

For example: I have a navigation bar on the left of the page, and a set of tabs in the center. Tab A is active. I want to be able to click a button in the navigation area and have the visible tab changed to tab B, as if I had clicked on tab B itself. How do I enable a button or link click in the navigation area to change the visible tab? I only need this in a few specific cases, and don't want to create a complex backend structure for a pair of buttons.

If you know a way to accomplish this, I'm all ears. Thanks.