IBM Lotus Symphony
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An Image Map allows you to attach URLs to specific areas, called hotspots, on a picture in your document. An image map is a group of one or more hotspots.
You can draw three types of hotspots: rectangles, ellipses, and polygons. When you click a hotspot, the URL is opened in the browser window or frame that you specify. You can also specify the text that appears when your mouse rests on the hotspot.
Position the cursor where you want the Image Map in your document.
Choose Create - Graphic from File, select and insert a bitmap picture.
With the picture selected, choose Edit - Image Map. You see the Image Map Editor, which displays the picture at the background.
Use the icons in the Image Map Editor to draw a hotspot shape, for example a rectangle, over the image at the background.
You can see an extended help text on the functions of each icon when you enable Extended Help in File - Preferences - Symphony - General.
Enter the "Address" URL that will be shown in a Web browser when the user clicks the hotspot.
Optionally, enter the "Text" that will be shown as a tip when the user points the mouse to the hotspot.
Click the Apply button to apply your changes, and close the Image Map Editor.
Save the document in the Lotus® Symphony™ format.
You may save the Image Map as a file and upload that file to a Web server, for example.
An Image Map is a reference-sensitive graphic or text frame. You can click on defined areas of the graphic or text frame to go to a target ( URL), which is linked with the area. The reference areas, along with the linked URLs and corresponding text displayed when resting the mouse pointer on these areas, are defined in the Image Map Editor.
There are two different types of Image Maps. A Client Side Image Map is evaluated on the client computer, which loaded the graphic from the Internet, while a Server Side Image Map is evaluated on the server computer which provides the web page on the Internet. In server evaluation, clicking an Image Map sends the relative coordinates of the cursor within the image to the server, and a dedicated program on the server responds. In the client evaluation, clicking a defined hotspot of the Image Map activates the URL, as if it were a normal text link. The URL appears below the mouse pointer when passing across the Image Map.
As Image Maps can be used in different ways, they can be stored in different formats.
Image Maps are basically divided between those that are analyzed on the server (i. e. your Internet provider) and those analyzed on the web browser of the reader's computer.
Server Side Image Maps appear for the reader as a picture or frame on the page. Click on the Image Map with the mouse, and the coordinates of the relative position are sent to the server. Aided by an extra program, the server then determines the next step to take. There are several incompatible methods to define this process, the two most common being:
W3C (CERN) HTTP Server (Format type: MAP - CERN)
NCSA HTTP Server (Format type: MAP - NCSA)
Lotus Symphony creates Image Maps for both methods. Select the format from the File type list in the Save As dialog in the Image Map Editor. Separate Map Files are created which you must upload to the server. You will need to ask your provider or network administrator which type of Image Maps are supported by the server and how to access the evaluation program.
The area of the picture or frame where the reader can click is indicated by the appearance of the linked URL when the mouse passes over the area. The Image Map is stored in a layer below the picture and contains information about the referenced regions. The only disadvantage of Client Side Image Maps is that older Web browsers cannot read them; a disadvantage that will, however, resolve itself in time.
When saving the Image Map, select the file type SIP - StarView Image Map. This saves the Image Map directly in a format which can be applied to every active picture or frame in your document. However, if you just want to use the Image Map on the current picture or text frame, you do not have to save it in any special format. After defining the regions, simply click Apply. Nothing more is necessary.