Webpage question (1 Viewer)

[Neil Joseph]

I want to take a picture like this...

and be able to click on the various components in that picture and be instantly transported to the webpage dealing in that component. For instance, clicking on the projection screen should take me to the area of my site dealing with the screen. What is the best way to do this? Will it involve me cutting my picture to pieces, creating an url for the pieces that matter, and merging the pieces of the picture together like a jigsaw puzzle? Or is there an easier way?

Thanks,

 

[Brian E]

Neil, give this a look.
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/im.html

What you want is called an Image Map.

 

[John_Berger]

Or is there an easier way?

The map function in HTML is another way as long as you have the proper beginning and ending X,Y coordinates.

There are probably other ways, but these two are by far the most common.

 

[Brian E]

Neil, I just remembered this little freeware program called dicer. It will cut up your image & do the html for the table for you. IIRC it works pretty well.
http://www.ziplink.net/~shoestring/dicer01.htm

 

[RandyObert]

If you can use front page it has a very simple interface for doing this. Basically point and click setup and you can add "Hot Spots"

 

[John_Berger]

No, no, no, no, no!

FrontPage should never be used as it optimizes all HTML code for (of course) Internet Exploder, which contrary to popular opinion is not what everybody uses (or should use). This is why .asp files should not be used either for web use. They're meant specifically for use with IE, which is a rather arrogant assumption and restriction for ANY webmaster to make.

There are far better tools out there that provide the same things that FrontPage provides yet stick with HTML coding standards thereby making the resulting page compatible with all HTML-standards compliant browsers.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

This is false- as ASP is strictly SERVER SIDE CODE and can be read by any browser. The code is executed on the server and then the finished results plugged into webformats, and the output is non-browser specific (or at least as non browser specific as you choose to make the HTML). A browser would have zero difference reading ASP than reading HTML, if the HTML is correct. The execution of ASP takes place on the server, not in the browser- the browser never sees ASP code or variables- it sees output.

Anyone who codes ASP will tell you the same- in fact the SERVER SIDE element of ASP actually becomes a pain from time to time (I've had to write mini java applets to do simple things like put a cursor in a certain place, just because ASP has no control over the client machine at that level).

The ironic part is that most folks who cry against IE as non-standard don't realize how many legit HTML code tags most versions of Netscape ignore completely. I find IE is one of the better browsers for sticking with HTML standards- or at least it was when I was spending time with directly coding pages...

-Vince

 

[John_Berger]

The problem with that is that ASP and FrontPage tend to go hand in hand so that if you attempt to access a page with .ASP extentions with anything other than IE, you will very often be unable to view the page properly.

And I never said that Netscape/Mozilla were 100% compliant either; however, I have never run across a page that could be used with Netscape/Mozilla but not with IE, but I have run across plenty (almost all .asp) that run fine in IE but not in Netscape/Mozilla due to the often proprietary code that is embedded in FrontPage-created documents.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I don't know, as I don't use frontpage- but I assure you that ASP itself, despite being a microsoft product, is not specifially tied to IE. In fact, ASP makes it real easy to browser quiery and thus even target your HTML toward particular browsers. I can point yout o my whole site which is done is ASP and I'd bet you would have zero issues (heck, you'd never even see asp extensions, since many of my ASP pages are parts of frame layouts with HTML extensions).

 

[John_Berger]

You're absolutely correct. It all comes down to how the pages themselves are coded; however, you're one of the few (if not the only one) that I know of who uses .asp but does not use FrontPage. Most companies decide that if they're going to use Microsoft, they're going to go all the way and thereby use FrontPage as well, hence why there is often a very tight correlation between .asp and FrontPage.

You at least have my thanks for realizing that there is more out there than IE. Too many webmasters can't get past that concept.

 

[RandyObert]

As a web hosting provider, I can tell you that the vast and I mean by A-LOT, IE is the preferred browser, I run Mozilla myself, on one of my own sites the last 25000+ Hits comes up as follows (oh this is a PHP coded site)

1. MSIE 6.0 23979
2. MSIE 5.5 1172
3. Mozilla 4.0 617
4. Mozilla 5.0 599
5. MSIE 5.01 585
6. MSIE 5.0 581
7. Netscape 7.0 226
8. Opera 6.03 191
9. Netscape 7.02 168
10. Konqueror 157

Front page does use more space,
Front Page does allow almost anyone to create and edit pages

ASP and Front Page are not exclusive to each other, about 30% of my clients run FP extensions and not a one runs ASP. How do I know that? None of my servers run ASP (which is server side)

ASP is very abundant across the web, I test sites with all browsers and find that they all load the same pages at about the same speed. ASP is NOT only for IE nor does it assume that you are using IE. Some of the largest, busiest, most interactive sites on the web use ASP.

Maybe what you are talking about is old school. New browser compatibility really is not much of an issue anymore with a few exceptions,(mostly having to do with working inside frames)

Not everyone can be a "die hard coder" and there for need applications for weaklings IE Front-page etc.
It may not be for everyone but is surely is for some.

I merely offered it as a suggestion for a person that may or may not have the time, effort and or experience to figure out how to create an image map.

If you want the image map for the above pic, just ask I will send it to you and you can modify the links to your own liking. Now hows that for easy LOL

 

[John_Berger]

Oh, trust me. I'm not naive on this issue.

However, I do reject the "preferred" browser claim. Most people use IE for no other reason than it's there when the O/S is installed. (Naw-w-w-w, Microsoft wasn't trying to do anything underhanded by doing that, were they?)

However, that doesn't necessarily excuse those webmasters from ignoring HTML coding standards thus preventing cross-platform compatiblity. Yes, yes, I'm sure that some people are ready to throw the "But if they're the majority..." rebuttal at me, but that doesn't make it right.

(Is my UNIX side showing through? )

New browser compatibility really is not much of an issue anymore with a few exceptions,(mostly having to do with working inside frames)

I've noticed that Mozilla has far fewer FrontPage issues than other versions of Netscape (although I have not used Netscape 7), but there are still pages where non-IE browsers simply will not behave properly at all. With the various standards between Java, JavaScript, HTML, and others -- hell, even Shockwave or Flash -- there is absolutely no reason for anyone to use something like FrontPage which favors one browser (can you guess which one? ) over others.