Imagemaps?

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 The discussion of imagemaps is starting to degenerate into
 a flamefest because of conflicting definitions. There's an
 entity called an HTML imagemap, that has some irritating
 characteristics that differentiate it from a more
 traditional clickable graphic; there's also an ordinary
 image map, which is a visual aid to navigation, however you
 choose to implement it.

 A well-designed ordinary image map can be an indispensible
 "you are here" identifier... think of it as the section
 divider tabs in the 3-ring binder of your site (in which
 case a row of text hyperlinks implemented using ALT tags
 substitutes nicely for the graphical version). Whether you
 implement this as an HTML imagemap or as an ordinary image
 map doesn't affect how useful this is to the site's
 visitors; from the standpoint of the HTML designer, the
 difference is very significant indeed because it carries
 some serious implementation problems.

 Would it be fair to say that we agree the concept is
 potentially useful (if not a substitute for intelligent
 design) and that the implementation is what's causing this
 thread to degenerate into a flame war? This strikes me as
 more reasonable than attacking each other without even
 agreeing on what we're arguing about.

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

                  TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send administrative commands
         ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
       should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-