Benefits of using clickable image map on websites

An image map is usually a picture that has many clickable regions or invisible hyperlinks to other websites, clicking on the regions will let users access to additional information in a pop up infobox, or link to other associated video clips or photo albums. For instance - in a photograph showing a furnished apartment, if you clicked on the sofa, chair, dining table or tea table, you would be sent to another webpage or website containing all the info about the furniture.

Image maps allow web designers to be more creative in terms of visual effects and website navigation. For example, when designing anatomy course for medical students, teachers can use an image map to display the human anatomical parts with mouse over tooltips illustrating the details and functions for each part.

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Image maps display information on your website in a more presentable way, thereby encouraging your web visitors to stay longer and return to your page more frequently. Instead of providing mere text content in which readers need to take a lot of time to digest, business owners can employ visual elements like image maps to help visitors find information efficiently. Faced with the challenge of browsing the web content in less time, web users can simply look at a self-explanatory image, and click on the item or element which interested them the most. This in turn makes it easier to convert visitors into prospective customers or serious buyers.

How do you convert a static image into an image map? In the past, most image maps are coded using Java script, HTML, and hot spots are defined by using x and y coordinates. Experienced web developers are able to create image maps by hand, using a simple text editor such as NotePad, however doing so requires that the web developer knows HTML coding and also requires them to know the coordinates of the areas that they wish to place over the image. As a result, most image maps coded by hand are simple polygons and not very useful for business owners who often do not have advance coding knowledge.

Creating image maps in a text editor requires time and effort, there are many applications that allow the web designer to quickly and easily create image maps. One example of these is Dreamweaver which is a commercial software from Adobe Inc., it is a web page editor with built-in image map tools.

In recent years, more and more web developers are using Flash to create image maps, instead of HTML. Creating image maps using Flash is a lot easier, faster, and more powerful. That's because Flash maps have the capability to enable a wide variety of interactive features including different mouseover effects, various pop-up box styles, and zooming. Flash image maps also loads a lot smoother and faster, with better browser compatibility because browsers of all types use the same Flash plug-in from Adobe. Whereas HTML image map might work differently in old and new browser, and the mapping script often won't work across browsers of all operation system platforms.

Flash image maps have become a popular means to supplement and enhance traditional static images. When typing the keyword 'flash image maps', dozens of websites offering flash image map software would be presented, and users can download a trial version to test-drive prior to purchase. These software can easily transform your static images in JPG, PNG or GIF format into a clickable flash map with custom defined regions, and the good news is that HTML coding or Flash knowledge is not required for you to create image map.

 

 

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