Creating Clickable Regions for Image Maps in FrameMaker
An image map can be a single image separated with clickable regions or a composite image made up of multiple images grouped together, yet still separated with clickable regions. For example, you could create an image of the countries of Europe and then define an image map for the image that allows users to link to a topic about each country when they click on an area of the image. User can click France to see information about France, Italy to see information about Italy, and so on.
When you define an image map, you can also define alternate text for each clickable region. For example, you might define alternate text for the Italy region as "Click here for more information about Italy." For more information about assigning alternate text to image maps, see Assigning Alternate Text to Images and Image Maps in FrameMaker.
Creating Image Maps for Single Images in FrameMaker
You create image maps for single images in Adobe FrameMaker source documents using text frames and hyperlinks. In Adobe FrameMaker, a hyperlink consists of a link and a link target, or named destination. A named destination is a unique identifier for a location in the document.
You can also create an image map for a composite image in an Adobe FrameMaker source document. For more information about creating composite images, see Creating Image Maps for Composite Images in FrameMaker.
The following procedure provides an example of how to create an image map for a single image in Adobe FrameMaker source documents using unstructured Adobe FrameMaker. Steps for creating an image map for a single image in Adobe FrameMaker may be different in other versions of Adobe FrameMaker.
To create an image map for a single image in an Adobe FrameMaker source document:
  1. In your Adobe FrameMaker source document, insert the image you want to use for you image map into an anchored frame. For more information, see Inserting Images in FrameMaker.
  2. If you want to link to content in a different location in your source document, create a named destination for the link for each area of the image map by completing the following steps:
    Note: You do not need to perform these steps if you want to link to content on a Web site.
    1. Locate the link target in your source document.
    2. On the Special menu, click Marker.
    3. In the Marker Type field, click Hypertext.
    4. In the Marker Text field, newlink linkname or newlink filename:linkname, where linkname is the name of the named destination for the link, and filename is the name of the file that contains the link, if the link is in a different Adobe FrameMaker source document.
      Note: To make maintenance easy, create short link names that use alphanumeric, lowercase characters.
    5. Click New Marker.
  3. In the anchored frame that contains the image for which you want to create an image map, draw a text frame that covers each region of the image where you want users to be able to click by completing the following steps:
    1. On the Graphics menu, click Tools to display the graphic tools palette.
    2. Click the Text Frame icon.
    3. Drag the cursor over the portion of the image for which you want to create a clickable area.
    4. In the Create New Text Frame window, in the Number field, type 1, and then click Set.
  4. In the text frame, insert a Hypertext marker that specifies the destination for the clickable region by completing the following steps:
    1. Insert your cursor into the text frame.
    2. On the Special menu, click New Marker.
    3. If you want to link to content in a different location in your source document, use a named destination link you created in step 2. In the Marker Text field, type gotolink linkname or gotolink filename:linkname, where linkname is the name of a link target you created previously, and filename is the name of the file that contains the link, if the link is in a different Adobe FrameMaker source document.
    4. If you want to link to a page on a Web site, in the Marker Text field, type message URL web address, where web address is the URL of the web page you want to open when users click the image.
      Note: For more information about using the these commands, see the Adobe FrameMaker documentation.
    5. Click New Marker.
  5. Save your Adobe FrameMaker source document.
  6. Generate output for your project. For more information, see Generating Output.
  7. In Output Explorer, verify ePublisher created the image map using the link information you specified by clicking on the page that contains the image map and then clicking on each area of the image where you created a link. For more information about viewing output files in Output Explorer, see Viewing Output in Output Explorer.
Creating Image Maps for Composite Images in FrameMaker
You can create composite images by inserting the composite images into an anchored frame and then inserting text frames that contain the link you want users to go to when they click an area of a composite image.
The following procedure provides an example of how to use Hotspots in Adobe FrameMaker to create image maps for composite images in source documents.
To create an image map for a composite image using Hotspots in an Adobe FrameMaker source document:
  1. In your Adobe FrameMaker source document, insert each image you want to use for your image map into an anchored frame. For more information, see Inserting Images in FrameMaker.
  2. If you want to link to content in a different location in your source document, create a named destination for the link for each area of the image map by completing the following steps:
    Note: You do not need to perform these steps if you want to link to content on a Web site.
    1. Locate the link target in your source document.
    2. On the Special menu, click Marker.
    3. In the Marker Type field, click Hypertext.
    4. In the Marker Text field, newlink linkname or newlink filename:linkname, where linkname is the name of the named destination for the link, and filename is the name of the file that contains the link, if the link is in a different Adobe FrameMaker source document.
      Note: To make maintenance easy, create short link names that use alphanumeric, lowercase characters.
    5. Click New Marker.
  3. In the anchored frame that contains the image for which you want to create an image map, draw a text frame that covers each region of the image where you want users to be able to click by completing the following steps:
    1. On the Graphics menu, click Tools to display the graphic tools palette.
    2. Click the Text Frame icon.
    3. Drag the cursor over the portion of the image for which you want to create a clickable area.
    4. In the Create New Text Frame window, in the Number field, type 1, and then click Set.
  4. For each text frame, set the Hotspot properties that specifies the destination for the clickable region and optionally set its tooltip text by completing the following steps:
    1. On the Graphics menu, click Tools to display the graphic tools palette.
    2. Click the Select Object icon.
    3. Click on the text frame so that you can set its hotspot properties.
    4. With the text frame selected, right-click and select Hotspot Properties... from the menu.
    5. If you want to link to content in a different location in your source document, under Destination select the Document radio button. Then select either Current or the name of your target source document. Then click the marker with the named destination you created previously in step 2.
    6. If you want to link to a page on a Web site, under Destination select the URL radio button. Then type the complete web address (including protocol such as https://) in the adjacent text box of the web page you want to open when users click the image.
    7. If you want tooltip text to be available in the output, under the Tooltip Text label, enter the text you want to appear as the tooltip.
    8. Click the Save button on the Hotspot dialog.
  5. Save your Adobe FrameMaker source document.
  6. Generate output for your project. For more information, see Generating Output.
  7. In Output Explorer, verify ePublisher created the image map using the link information you specified by clicking on the page that contains the image map and then clicking on each area of the image where you created a link. For more information about viewing output files in Output Explorer, see Viewing Output in Output Explorer.
If your version of Adobe FrameMaker does not provide for Hotspot properties, you can still create image maps for composite images by following this alternate example of how to create image maps for composite images in Adobe FrameMaker source documents using unstructured Adobe FrameMaker 7.2. Steps for creating image maps for composite images in Adobe FrameMaker may be different in other versions of Adobe FrameMaker.
To create an image map for a composite image in an Adobe FrameMaker source document using hypertext markers:
  1. In your Adobe FrameMaker source document, insert each image you want to use for your image map into an anchored frame. For more information, see Inserting Images in FrameMaker.
  2. If you want to link to content in a different location in your source document, create a named destination for the link for each area of the image map by completing the following steps:
    Note: You do not need to perform these steps if you want to link to content on a Web site.
    1. Locate the link target in your source document.
    2. On the Special menu, click Marker.
    3. In the Marker Type field, click Hypertext.
    4. In the Marker Text field, newlink linkname or newlink filename:linkname, where linkname is the name of the named destination for the link, and filename is the name of the file that contains the link, if the link is in a different Adobe FrameMaker source document.
      Note: To make maintenance easy, create short link names that use alphanumeric, lowercase characters.
    5. Click New Marker.
  3. In the anchored frame that contains the image for which you want to create an image map, draw a text frame that covers each region of the image where you want users to be able to click by completing the following steps:
    1. On the Graphics menu, click Tools to display the graphic tools palette.
    2. Click the Text Frame icon.
    3. Drag the cursor over the portion of the image for which you want to create a clickable area.
    4. In the Create New Text Frame window, in the Number field, type 1, and then click Set.
  4. In each text frame, insert a Hypertext marker that specifies the destination for the clickable region by completing the following steps:
    1. Insert your cursor into the text frame.
    2. On the Special menu, click Marker.
    3. If you want to link to content in a different location in your source document, use the named destination link you created in step 2. In the Marker Text field, type gotolink linkname or gotolink filename:linkname, where linkname is the name of a link target you created previously, and filename is the name of the file that contains the link, if the link is in a different Adobe FrameMaker source document.
    4. If you want to link to a page on a Web site, in the Marker Text field, type message URL web address, where web address is the URL of the web page you want to open when users click the image.
      Note: For more information about using the these commands, see the Adobe FrameMaker documentation.
    5. Click New Marker.
  5. Save your Adobe FrameMaker source document.
  6. Generate output for your project. For more information, see Generating Output.
  7. In Output Explorer, verify ePublisher created the image map using the link information you specified by clicking on the page that contains the image map and then clicking on each area of the image where you created a link. For more information about viewing output files in Output Explorer, see Viewing Output in Output Explorer.
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Last modified date: 01/28/2026