This page describes a tool that lets you create imagemaps for your
HTML pages. An imagemap is what defines the hot-spots in a "clickable
image" on your web page. The tool assumes you already have an image.
Currently only GIF image types are supported. The basic operation is
simple: you position ovals, rectangles, and polygons on top of the
image and associate URLs with each region. The tool can save in either
NCSA or CERN map file formats.
Basic Operation
- Open the Edit->Configuration dialog.
- If your are using a CERN-style server (e.g., NetScape) then choose
the CERN map format. In this case you can probably also just clear
out the "Map Directory" because your server will look for the maps
in the same directory as the image files.
- If you have an NCSA-style server choose the NCSA map format. In
this case you probably also need to specify the "Map Directory" where
the server will look for the map files.
- Use the File->Open menu to open a GIF file. The file selection
will always start off in the image directory, but you could open any
file. If there is already map information about the image, it will
be automatically loaded. If your image is "foo.gif", then the map information
is "foo.map".
- Select a shape using either the Edit menu or the radio buttons
along the top of the window. Drag out shapes using the Left
mouse button.
- Polygons are a little different. Click with the left
mouse button to specify the points, and then end the polygon by clicking
back on the starting point.
- If you right click while dragging out a shape,
the current shape is deleted.
- Right click on a shape to select it. Two things
happen. Small white squares are displayed at the control points of
the shape. You can drag those around with the left mouse
button to change the shape. A dialog also pops up that lets you specify
the URL associated with the shape. You can also delete the shape from
this dialog.
- Use the File->Save menu operation to save the map file.If your
image is "foo.gif", then the map information is "foo.map" in the map
directory.
More features
The Edit->UrlSet menu operation displays a dialog with all the URLs
for all the hot spots. This dialog is updated as you add shapes, so
it may just be easier to define all your URLs here. Each row in the
dialog has a button and a text entry field for the shape. Click on
the button to highlight the corresponding shape.
When you right click on a shape you get a dialog that includes a "Show
Points" button. Click this to display the coordinates of your shape.
These are updated as you drag the control points. Or, if you edit a
number in this dialog it updates the shape in the main display.
The configuration information is remembered in a file called ~/.ime,
so you may only need to use the Edit->Configuration menu operation
one time.
Limitations
There is no way to add or remove points from a polygon once you create
it.
You cannot control the layering of your shapes. The way it currently
works is that the shapes you define first are highest in priority.
So, define small hot-spots first, and then define any large regions
that overlap those.
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