Mapedit Introduction & FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

"What is Mapedit?"

A graphical editor for World Wide Web image maps (clickable imagemaps).

"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 2.63 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.

"Do I need a real web server to deliver imagemaps?"

With Mapedit 2.63, you can use client side imagemaps, which work without any special configuration in the latest web browsers. Of course you can also make old-style server-side imagemaps in order to support older browsers.

"How much does it cost?"

You can download an evaluation copy right now. Evaluation copies are good for 30 days; you need to register before the evaluation period expires. Registration costs $25 and can be done online or by phone, fax or mail. Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions (not private individuals) can receive free registration by mail. Details are explained in the software when you click on the REGISTER button.

"Where can I get it?"

Right here.

"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 2.63 (the latest version).

"Mapedit crashed on my system. What next?"

Get version 2.63. A great deal of debugging has taken place. If you find a bug in 2.63, 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 2.63 (see above) and convert your imagemaps to client-side for use with the latest browsers. Client-side imagemaps require no special installation!

"Can I test my imagemaps locally in my web browser?"

YES, if you use client side imagemaps in Mapedit 2.63. 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.

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

In Mapedit 2.63, the answer is yes! Versions before 2.0 supported only GIF.

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

Yes. However, (1) make sure you have Mapedit 2.63, 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 different frame from each hotspot?"

With Mapedit 2.63, 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!

"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.

"I make pages with Word 2000. Why do I only see my hotspots in Netscape?"

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 Netscape doesn't understand VML, it uses 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, which Netscape is using. Internet Explorer completely ignores the HTML for your images and uses the VML stuff instead.

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

You can get the filter and more information about it here:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/articles/oRemoveMarkup.htm

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

Microsoft moves their pages around a lot. If this link breaks, let us know.

"Can imagemaps be used in VRML worlds?"

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

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