4: The Web Image Map Palette

The Web Image Map palette is a floating palette that is used to create and modify Web image
maps. It can be opened from the Tools menu.

A Web image map is a text file that describes the regions within a graphic that link to an HTML Web page or location within a Web page. When a viewer clicks on this area, they will be immediately transferred to that page or location.

The four drawing tool buttons (Rectangle, Circle, Polygon and Point) are used to create map regions on an image. In the example below, the Rectangle was used to create region (1) for ìSurfingî; the Polygon to create region (2) for ìSunset Toursî and the Circle to create region (3) for ìWeather.î

The leftmost button, the Arrow, is used to re-position regions after they are drawn.


Once the regions have been drawn, their arrangement can be changed by using the next group of buttons. The Move to Front button moves a selected region to the frontmost position; likewise the next button, Move to Back moves the region to the lowest layer. The next two buttons, Move Forward and Move Backward shuffle the selected region up or down one level per click.

Layering is important because when regions overlap, only the topmost link is activated.

The Color Picker button opens the standard Apple Color Picker where you may select a color for the lines defining the map regions (note that the options available in the Color Picker may differ depending on the extensions loaded in your System).


Clicking the URL button opens a dialog box where you may enter the Universal Resource Locator (URL) the image map will link to.

To change the default URL, click on the image outside of the numbered regions and click the URL button. Enter the new name of the default URL you wish to use in the dialog box.


The Image Map Options Pop-up at the right end of the palette lets you open existing image maps, save image maps or close image maps.

When Save Map or Save Map AsÖ is chosen, a dialog box opens with the options to save the image map in two server-side types: NCSA or CERN (the type chosen depends on the type your server supports). These maps are opened automatically if the map file is named the same as the image file (except for the .map at the end) and both are located in the same folder.


Checking the Save Client-side map also checkbox will save a client-side version of the map in HTML format in addition to the server-side type you choose. This HTML image map file is immediately useable. The CERN or NCSA maps as described above must be in the same folder for the image map to appear when the image file is opened


NOTE: See the tutorial section towards the end of the manual or other books on creating Web pages for more information on using Web image maps.