apache question
 

I was wondering if it is possible to set up apache so that when i enter the document root into a browser it processes my PHP as if i had entered the server IP.

Example:
If I enter /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/page.php it displays the HTML but not anything generated by PHP.
If I enter 127.0.0.1/page.php it will display the PHP.

Is it possible to get the first example to work the same as the second.

Thats not possible, php pages have to be processed on the web server first before being shown on the web browser unlike plain html files.