What Do You Need to Create an Image Map?

Hot Spot Shapes and Coordinates

• Hot spots can be rectangles, circles or polygons. Coordinates specify each shape's location, using a pixel grid that covers the entire image with the top left corner of the image being (0,0). Enter the shapes and coordinates in the map tag portion of the HTML code.
  
  

Creating an Image and Determining Coordinates

• Use any image that can be used on the web, generally a JPEG, GIF or PNG photo or illustration. Determine coordinates using an image-editing program; hold the cursor over the corners of each shape in the image, in turn, and consult the status bar to show the coordinates of the cursor for each position.
  
  

Hyperlinks

• Each hot spot links users to a different Web page with a corresponding hyperlink. Specify the hyperlink for each shape in the "href" section of the "area shape" tag in the map tag code, using the same format used to specify a standard hyperlink.
  
  

HTML Code

• The map tag code is part of the overall HTML code for the Web page. It can be written in any software that is used to create HTML code for web pages.