tabbed flashnews like joomla?

Is it possible to create a template, or create a plugin for that matter that would allow a tabbed window such as the theme http://test.olwebdesign.com/index.php?jos_change_template=ol_core for joomla. I have a client that has had problems understanding joomla, and think that wordpress may be a better match. However, he is hung up on this feature. I would also like to exclude the posts in the category that I use so they will not be duplicated on the page. I don’t mind writing plugins, if you can point me to a good tutorial. If I put this is the wrong category, could a mod move it?

tia,
Danny