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Giving Help with Image Mapping


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#1
Guest_yezpahr_*

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Some people want to place links INSIDE an image. That is possible, but only when you want to go through rigurous nutbreakings, it is a lot of work. If you put on wrong poly's the places of the links may be totally wrong or misfigured.

You can use a nifty program called Mapedit.

http://www.boutell.c...t/download.html

It looks like a commercial website and it IS. You have 100 savings of your work when you install a free version and you have 30 days. If you are doing it at school or at work, just ask an image or go install it on a different pc when the 30 days or 100 saves are finished.

The problems with imagemapping is that you must create a per-poly line that creates a line between the pixel-points you insert. Without mapedit you will have to go with Photoshop or paint and search for the coords where you want the links to be inserted. The one and only reason to use imagemapping is because it looks nifty, look at my website:

http://www.freewebs....esper_portfolio and look at the menu, it were rectangles first that were cut off on the middle and placed ontop of eachother (with the bare eyes, it is hard to tell were the middle is when you don't know the original, that is why I created a "how-it-was-before" copy of it on a different URL: http://www.freewebs....sper_portfolio2 )

The difference this site with the other site is that when you keep your cursor on the left and right side of one of the images in the menu, you will be on the brown part and still select HOME, while the brown part should direct to HARDWARE.

Only THIS page is with the old menu, all others have been replaced, due to webspace. The links are working and will take you to my new one.




I hope I have made some things clear for web developers. I will check this topic for updates every day, to see how I can help more with this special feature of HTML.
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#2
Steelheart

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Thanks for the information, I have always wondered how image mapping is done. I might have to check it out now since it can be useful.

Mike
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#3
Major Payne

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Some tips for image mapping :

1) Make them clear and understandable. Your visitors should be able to figure where your links are and where they will take them - or if they are even there.
2) Always provide some alternative form of navigation at the bottom, top or sides of your pages. Some people may be using non-visual browsers (braille and aural types). It's also acts as a courtesy for those who don't want to take the time to decipher any unclear image map's meaning.
3) Don't select a complicated image even if you like it. They don't make being "self-explanatory" easy.
4) Use captions if your images are not obvious. This will help visitors decipher the links.
5) Make use of the ALT attribute in your image by using a brief description of where the link goes. For Firefox users, the TITLE attribute should be used in either the <img> tag along with the ALT attribute or inside the <a> tags.

To learn by example, visit Web Pages That Suck.

Ron
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#4
Steelheart

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I agree with you Major! I have looked at Web Pages That Suck off and on, but finally devoted some time to reading most of what he had written. There is a Daily Sucker that illustrates the bad that can be done regarding what you said. It is a link to a coffee shop website. See if you can find the links! Oh what fun. :tazz:

In my experience, the most usable image maps are those of actual maps, floorplans, or what not. I usually encounter them at tech sites where they have you click on your region to get to the appropriate site.

Crossroads Cafe and Coffeehouse

Mike
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#5
Major Payne

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Crossroads Cafe and Coffeehouse

Mike


Pretty neat at the ole Cross Roads Cafe. Found only three links. The obvious one is the "Open" neon sign. Probably keeps out a lot of viewers that have no patience or knowledge about image mapping so wouldn't know links are somewhere in the image. :tazz:

Ron
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#6
Steelheart

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Yeah, it's a nice idea, but the graphic is pretty large in size from the look of it. Other than the Open link as you said, the menu and the other link are not obvious.

But that's something to keep in mind! Learn from the mistakes of others.

Mike
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