MapEdit Frequently Asked Questions

Go to the Mapedit download page to get the version of Mapedit we offer for your operating system.
Click on the appropriate link for your operating system.
A dialog box comes up that says do you want to run from this location or save this to disk.
Choose Run this from its location and allow Mapedit to install on your hard drive.
You will be prompted through questions about accepting the terms of our licensing agreement. Click the appropriate responses for your situation.

Are imagemaps hard to make?

Until recently, they were. Server-side imagemaps required the author to install them separately on the server. But with Mapedit 2.95 and the latest web browsers, you can use client-side imagemaps, which reside in your HTML page and are very easy to create. Mapedit will also create server-side maps for backwards compatibility with old browsers.

Can you clarify the pricing for Mapedit?

SINGLE LICENSE: $ 15.00/copy
A single copy license entitles you to one copy of Mapedit. A separate copy must be purchased for each separate computer using Mapedit.

SITE LICENSE: $ 250.00
A Site license entitles you to utilize as many copies of Mapedit, on any number of machines, in one physical location. This includes campus settings.

GLOBAL LICENSE: $ 1000.00
To utilize multiple copies of Mapedit in more than one physical location (building or campus), you will want a global license.

Where can I find Unix installation instructions?

Get the Unix installation instructions here

Where can I find Macintosh installation instructions?

Get the Macintosh installation instructions here

Do I need a real web server to deliver imagemaps?

No, not unless you are going well out of your way to use server-side rather than client-side imagemaps. In normal operation Mapedit makes client-side imagemaps.

How do I create a client side image map using Mapedit?

To use Mapedit:

You need an HTML document containing inline images, jpg's, gif's or png's.

Make sure both the document and the images are present on your drive.
Use the Open HTML Document option on the file menu to open the HTML document.

Mapedit will display a file selection dialog box. Use this dialog box to select an existing HTML document containing the image you want to add hotspots to. If you do not have any HTML documents yet, you should create one before using this program.

Next, you will be prompted to indicate which of the images included in that HTML document is of interest. The image, which can be in GIF, JPG, JPEG, or PNG format, must already exist. Mapedit is not a paint program.

Click on OK when you have selected the image of your choice.

Mapedit will now load your image into memory. This will take a few moments, depending on the size of the image. If Mapedit cannot guess the location of the image on disk, it will prompt you to locate it using a file selection dialog box.

When the image has been loaded, it will appear in the main mapedit window, which should expand or shrink to suit the image. If the image is large, scrollbars for horizontal and vertical movement will appear. You can navigate the image using the scrollbars; you can also resize the window as needed.

Image maps consist of areas that have been designated as "hotspots" which users can click on to fetch particular URLs. Mapedit allows you to draw these graphically on the screen. To do this read on.....

How do I specify rectangles?
If the Rectangle tool is not already checked in the Tools menu, then select Rectangle from the Tools menu. Next, click the left mouse button in one corner of a rectangular region of interest in the image. Now move the mouse pointer to the opposite corner, tracing out a rectangle. (You do not need to hold down the mouse button.) To complete the rectangle, click the mouse button again. You will then be prompted for a URL. (follow the same process for circles and poly's in general)

Entering URLs
When you complete a hotspot, the URL window will pop up, prompting you for the URL that this hotspot should link to. The URL you enter should be a legal URL.
For example:
http://www.boutell.com/mapedit/
Relative URLs such as filename.html are even better because they still work if you move your documents to another site. Do not enter HTML tags in the URL field. Only the URL is needed.

Be sure to enter a text alternative for each hotspot. The latest web browsers display this text when the mouse pointer is over the hotspot.

When you have completed your entry, click on OK or press RETURN to continue. The hotspot will now be drawn completely. For polygons, a final side between the last point and the first point will be added automatically. If the outline is not easily visible on this image, try selecting Edit Hotspot Color from the File menu.

Editing the hotspot color You can edit the hotspot color by selecting Edit Hotspot Color from the File menu. You will be presented with the standard color selection dialog box, in which you can click on a color of your choice. Look for a color that contrasts well with the colors present in your images. Mapedit will remember your choice of color indefinitely.

How do I test my hotspots? Select Test/Edit from the Tools menu. Now click at various points in the image. When you click in a hotspot, such as a polygon, rectangle or circle you have designated, the URL window will pop up, showing the URL assocated with that hotspot. Also, the region within the hotspot will be displayed in reverse video. Important note: when hotspots overlap, the oldest gets the click. This is important because this is how the actual imagemap program will behave when your users click on your map in practice.

How do I go back and edit URLs? Often you will not know the final URL for each hotspot at first, or you will want to change it. You can do so by selecting Test/Edit from the Tools menu and clicking in the hotspot in question, editing the URL that appears, and then clicking on OK or pressing RETURN. You can also edit the other fields at this time. Note that you can cut, copy and paste using the control-x, control-c and control-v keys (just as in all other Windows applications).

How do I delete unwanted hotspots? Select Test/Edit... from the Tools menu. Note that a Delete button appears in the URL dialog box when you select a hotspot. By clicking this button, you can remove that hotspot from the map.

How do I save my work? Pull down the file menu and select Save. Mapedit will write your imagemap out as part of the HTML document you opened when you began your work. If a problem is encountered while writing this file, use the Save As file menu option to enter a new name for the HTML document.

Please send me details, a url & the html code you are working from if you have problems with MapEdit.

When I open my image in Mapedit it looks all scrambled?

Mapedit doesn't play very well with some out of date graphics card drivers. For some reason, one or two legitimate things that Mapedit does are often accidentally left out or improperly supported in graphics card drivers.
Get the latest driver for your graphics card from your site of your card's manufacturer and install it. This clears up the problem for all of the users who have encountered it and followed this procedure.

How do I specify a mailto and relative url?

<A HREF="mailto:test@somesiteorother.com"> This is the mail to code. </A>
or
<A HREF="http://www.boutell.com/mapedit/"> Mapedit Home Full URL </A>
or
<A HREF="mapedit/mapedit.html"> Mapedit Home Relative URL </A>
Remember don't write "http://www.mysite.com/somewhere/foo.html" when you really mean just "foo.html", a file in the same directory, or "bar/foo.html", a file in a subdirectory called "bar" of the current directory.

Do I need a registration key to unlock the trial version of Mapedit ? How do I unlock it when I am ready?

Mapedit is shareware. The copy you have downloaded is fully functional for 30 days or 100 saves, whichever comes first. When your time or your saves run out, you will need to unlock the product to continue using it.
To unlock it:

Click the 'REGISTER' button and follow the prompts. If you choose to register offline, you will need to print the form that appears and mail it to:
Boutell.Com, Inc.
PO Box 63767
Philadelphia, PA 19147-0716
USA

I get an error message "your page does not contain any inline images", what should I do?

Most likely your pages contains incorrectly terminated HTML comments, like this:



The incorrect comments will cause Mapedit to ignore most of your document, probably including some image tags. Since browsers tend to tolerate this, the issue does come up often

How do I release the polygon lines to create the polygon?

Create the shape you want and then right click. A dialog box will come up and enter the desired information on the link and alternative text here. Then click ok. Now test your hotspot with the test feature.

INTERMEDIATE QUESTIONS

Blue border, relative urls, anchors and more.

Can I test my imagemaps locally in my web browser?

YES, if you use client side imagemaps in Mapedit 2.95. Netscape 2.0 or later and all versions of Internet Explorer support client side imagemaps. Today, almost all users have browsers with support for client side imagemaps.

How can I get rid of the blue border around my imagemap?

Add a border=0 attribute to the image tag.

Can I link hotspots to named anchors (URLs such as `foo.html#cheese`)?

Yes. However, (1) make sure you have Mapedit 2.95, and (2) if you are using server-side imagemaps, be sure to specify a complete URL beginning with http://hostname, as many imagemap programs do not handle this case properly otherwise. (Mapedit version 2.0 had a bug in this area, which is corrected in later versions.)

Can I target a frame from each hotspot?

With Mapedit 2.95, yes, you can. A separate field is provided to enter the Netscape Frames TARGET attribute for each hotspot. This is only possible with client-side imagemaps, but the browsers that support frames also support client-side imagemaps!

Can you have animated gifs in an image map?

Yes. Mapedit will display the first frame of the GIF while you are working with Mapedit, but it will animate normally on your web page. Please note that web browsers are not very consistent about what imagemaps do on animated GIFs (some don't let you click until the animation is over, some let you click right away).

I am having issues with the alt and title tags can you help me?

The ALT Attribute The ALT attribute was never intended for popup text. The ALT attribute is designed to provide an alternative for browsers that do not support graphics, such as browsers for the blind. Netscape 4.0 shows the ALT text as a popup, but it does it very badly: it won't work if the image has been scrolled, and that is not the only time it fails to work. Microsoft Internet Explorer does not show ALT text as a popup at all.

The TITLE attribute The TITLE attribute, which is a recent addition to HTML, *is* designed for use as popup text. Right now, only Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and up display the TITLE text.

How To Do All This With Mapedit Mapedit 2.51, which was released in late February of 1999, supports both ALT and TITLE. By default, Mapedit 2.51 will set ALT and TITLE to the same text. So you can conveniently set the alternative text in one place, and each browser will display it to the best of its ability. HOWEVER, please note that Netscape *still* doesn't display ALT text very well as of this writing, and it doesn't display TITLE text at all. Both of these things are problems with Netscape -- not with Mapedit. Please feel free to contact Netscape and ask them to support the TITLE attribute for popup text. This is the standard way to do it and Microsoft already supports it.

There is a problem with the ALT message when you hover over the default areas of an imagemap?

The probelm of an ALT message when you hover over the default areas of an imagemap - simply put it in the line setting up the imagemap before you get to mapedit. e.g - <A HREF="Bodyt.map"><IMG SRC="Body.gif" ALT="Body" ISMAP USEMAP="#bodyzones" BORDER="0" WIDTH="275" HEIGHT="472"></A> <map name="bodyzones"> <area shape="circle" . . etc. etc.

I make pages with Word 2000 or Word XP (Office 2000 or Office XP). Why doesn't Mapedit work?

The problem is that these pages are full of Microsoft VML, which is not HTML at all, but rather a vector graphics format invented by Microsoft.

Since Firefox, Safari and Opera don't understand VML (and good riddance— VML is junk), they use the fallback HTML provided by Word. And that works, because that's where Mapedit puts the imagemap.

But Mapedit doesn't speak VML, only HTML, so it can't make sense of the VML tags that Word is putting into your page; it just edits the HTML tags seen by non-IE browsers. Internet Explorer completely ignores the HTML for your images and uses the VML instead.

Fortunately there is a solution. Use Microsoft's Office HTML Filter to remove office-specific markup.

For Word/Office XP and other newer versions, just choose "Save As Web Page (Filtered)" instead of just "Save As Web Page." This filter removes the proprietary, essentially useless VML markup that prevents your page from working properly with Mapedit and other programs.

For Word/Office 2000, there is a filter you can obtain for free from Microsoft. You can get the filter and more information about it here:

Filter Link to Microsoft

After you run your page through the filter, your imagemaps should work with Internet Explorer and Firefox, Safari, etc.

Microsoft moves their pages around a lot. If this link breaks— again— please let us know.

Can you use a background image as an image map?

Unfortunately, you cannot imagemap a background image.
Even if Mapedit let you add the hotspots, no web browser would understand them.
Try to imagemap a regular inline image in the page instead, or look into the layer tag, which can be used to put layers of HTML (including images) behind each other.

Can I open JPEG and PNG-format images as well as GIF?

In Mapedit 2.95, the answer is yes! Versions before 2.0 supported only GIF.

Why doesn't Mapedit support .BMP images?

.BMP images do not work in web pages. If you put a .BMP image into an HTML page, without converting it to GIF or JPEG format, your readers will not be able to see it properly depending on what browser software they use. Also, .BMP images are very large, uncompressed files that will cause your ISP to complain about the amount of bandwidth you are using. Since .BMP images do not work in web pages, we saw no reason to include support for them in Mapedit, which would only lead to the false assumption that they can be used in web pages.

I have a long & complex URL that won't fit into the field for the URL?

There is a maximum of 256 characters imposed. If you have a long URL you might consider using an additional cgi script to accept simple keywords and issue redirects to more complex URLs.

HI would like to take the same image map and copy it onto different HTML pages without changing it.

Copy the image, cut and paste the image tags.
Copy and paste the 'MAP' tag, all of the 'AREA' tags, and the closing 'MAP' tag. Also add the same USEMAP attribute that you see in the first page's 'IMG' tag to all of the relevant 'IMG' tags on the other pages.

I would like to take the same image map and copy it onto different HTML pages without changing it.

This usually happens because there are improperly closed HTML comments in your page. To see what a comment should look like view the source code of this page.

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

Changing the code.

I'm a Javascript hacker. Can I edit the onMouseOver and onMouseOut attributes for each hotspot?

Yes! Version 2.3 added this capability. We do not provide Javascript technical support. These fields are provided for users who understand Javascript. You can learn more about Javascript on Netscape's developer information site. Please read the next faq as well.

I would like to use the onFocus=blur(), do you have an example?

The map, except for the missing opening tags here, would look something like:
img src="Singers2/u200.gif" alt="Singers 2 - U2 in Israel" border="0" usemap="#u200"> map name="u200" area shape="poly" alt="u201" coords="27,15,27,157,138,158,138,5" onFocus=blur(); href="ABC.htm" title="u201"> area shape="poly" alt="u202" coords="26,160,26,306,31,295,138,160" onFocus=blur(); href="def.htm" title="u202"> area shape="poly" alt="u203" coords="30,337,51,393,92,430,150,280, 317,144,335" onFocus=blur(); href="hij.htm" title="u203"> area shape="rect" alt="u204" coords="187,146,294,277" onFocus=blur(); href="klm.htm" title="u204"> area shape="poly" alt="u205" coords="187,16,188,142,293,143,293,5" onFocus=blur(); href=nop.htm" title="u205"> area shape="poly" alt="u206" coords="338,163,352,220,452,184,436,163" onFocus=blur(); href="qrs.htm" title="u206"> area shape="poly" alt="u207" coords="338,159,345,98,368,50,398,155" onFocus=blur(); href="tuv.htm" title="u207"> area shape="poly" alt="u208" coords="492,159,486,180,421,586,185,587,159" onFocus=blur(); href="wx.htm" title="u208"> area shape="poly" alt="u209" coords="417,303,345,436,518,314,525,303" onFocus=blur(); href="yz.htm" title="u209"> area shape="default" nohref> /map OR img src="images/catboat1.jpg" width="351" usemap="#catboat1" border="0"> map name="catboat1"> area shape="circle" coords="126,150,34" href="tboxweek2.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Week 2" title="Week 2" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="56,180,31" href="tboxcover.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Week 1" title="Week 1" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="201,134,26" href="tboxweek3.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Week 3" title="Week 3" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="132,211,21" href="tboxweek4.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Week 4" title="Week 4" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="187,221,26" href="tboxweek5.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Week 5" title="Week 5" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="276,172,33" href="tboxweek6.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Week 6" title="Week 6" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="287,89,30" href="tboxextras.html" TARGET="_blank" alt="Extra Goodies" title="Extra Goodies" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="circle" coords="292,307,27" href="mailto:thecats@cat-ti-tude.com" alt="Send Email" title="Send Email" onFocus="if(this.blur)this.blur()"> area shape="default" nohref> /map>

Can imagemaps be used in VRML worlds?

Yes. Greg Seidman has written a web page on the subject.

Can I use ColdFusion & Mapedit?

We have heard these two can work together. You can insert an image (gif) into a HTML document using the MS Word web authoring tool, save the document, open up Mapedit and put in the links and javascripts for onmouseover etc. Then copy the document into ColdFusion 4.5 studio and convert it into a coldfusion template to be used on your company's website.

ERRORS

Error Messages

I have a Mac and get this ERROR "This Java application requires"CODE FRAGMENT MANAGER"?

Install the MRJ.

OLD MAPEDIT FAQS

"I have the Windows version. I get green splotches instead of a GIF image. What's wrong?"

This was a bug in version 1.2. Get version 2.95 (the latest version).

"Mapedit crashed on my system. What next?"

Get version 2.95. A great deal of debugging has taken place. If you find a bug in 2.95, please write to us! Include as much information as possible about when the program crashed, what other programs were running at the time, and how to repeat the crash.

"I made a map and I made a link to the map and it just downloads the text of the map!"

You have made a server-side imagemap. Now, you need to install it according to the particular instructions for your specific web server. Read your server documentation and/or consult your web server administrator. Alternatively, upgrade to Mapedit 2.95 (see above) and convert your imagemaps to client-side for use with the latest browsers. Client-side imagemaps require no special installation!

BASIC QUESTIONS

Downloading, Pricing, Unix links, Mac links and other basic Mapedit questions.

INTERMEDIATE QUESTIONS

Borders, relative urls, anchors and more.

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

Changing the code.

ERRORS

Error Messages

OLD FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Old FAQs

BASIC QUESTIONS

Downloading, Pricing, Unix & Mac links and other basic Mapedit questions.

What is MapEdit?

How do I download MapEdit?

Are imagemaps hard to make?

Can you clarify the pricing for Mapedit?

Where can I find Unix installation instructions?

Where can I find Macintosh installation instructions?

Do I need a real web server to deliver imagemaps?

How do I create a client side image map using Mapedit?

When I open my image in Mapedit it looks all scrambled?

How do I specify a mailto and relative url?

Do I need a registration key to unlock the trial version of Mapedit ? How do I unlock it when I am ready?

I get an error message "your page does not contain any inline images", what should I do?

How do I release the polygon lines to create the polygon?

INTERMEDIATE QUESTIONS

Blue border, relative urls, anchors and more.

Can I test my imagemaps locally in my web browser?

How can I get rid of the blue border around my imagemap?

Can I link hotspots to named anchors (URLs such as foo.html#cheese)?

Can I target a frame from each hotspot?

Can you have animated gifs in an image map?

I am having issues with the alt and title tags can you help me?

There is a problem with the ALT message when you hover over the default areas of an imagemap?

I make pages with Word 2000 or Word XP (Office 2000 or Office XP). Why doesn't Mapedit work?

Can you use a background image as an image map?

Can I open JPEG and PNG-format images as well as GIF?

Why doesn't Mapedit support .BMP images?

I have a long & complex URL that won't fit into the field for the URL?

HI would like to take the same image map and copy it onto different HTML pages without changing it.

I would like to take the same image map and copy it onto different HTML pages without changing it.

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

Changing the code.

I'm a Javascript hacker. Can I edit the onMouseOver and onMouseOut attributes for each hotspot?

I would like to use the onFocus=blur(), do you have an example?

Can imagemaps be used in VRML worlds?

Can I use ColdFusion & Mapedit?

ERRORS

Error Messages

I have a Mac and get this ERROR "This Java application requires"CODE FRAGMENT MANAGER"?

OLD MAPEDIT FAQS

"I have the Windows version. I get green splotches instead of a GIF image. What's wrong?"

"Mapedit crashed on my system. What next?"

"I made a map and I made a link to the map and it just downloads the text of the map!"

Can I link hotspots to named anchors (URLs such as `foo.html#cheese`)?