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Easily create clickable image map and interactive map using flash

By Ko Fai Godfrey Ko

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 26Jun2009 Word count: 678 Viewed: 1260 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

A clickable interactive map can significantly improve your website's navigation and make online presentation a lot more easier.

In the past, webmasters use HTML and Java Scripts to create image maps. Which is difficult for most users and the function is limited.

With the increasing popularity of Flash, today's webmaster can take advantage of interactive map software to easily create an interactive map, and fully maximize the usefulness of clickable image maps, with mouseover tooltips, hint boxes and many other features.

Image maps are used all over the web. Because of the restriction of JPG and HTML, most image maps are strictly utilitarian, i.e. just several images, buttons or lines of text, each linked to a different page or URL. To create an image map, you would need a graphic software, HTML editor, with some client side scripting and javascript knowledge.

With the popularity of Flash, more and more webmasters start to create interactive flash maps which comes with a lot more features, such as mouseover tool tips, text boxes, hints, dynamic displaying of routes, lines, clickable points, icons, landmarks, etc.

Do not confused by the term 'map'. An interactive map can be any image with clickable areas with special pin-points. For example, you can create an interactive floor plan, an organization chart, or even a calendar with clickable points and areas, and display additional notes on mouse over to make it a lot easier for your visitors to find specific information using just a few clicks.

An interactive image map can greatly improve the navigation and functionality of your website. For example, you can generate a directional local map and embed it on your pages so your customers can know exactly where your shops or branch offices are located. You can indicate specific routes that customers should take in order to locate your place of business. You can also pin important landmarks on your interactive map for quick reference. The interactive flash map therefore can serve as your virtual locator -- your customers will have an easier time to find information about your company and products.

If you are selling real estate, then your website might have a property search function. Once you finished your website, you can add an interactive map to serve as a search tool. For example, you can generate a map for the properties that are listed for sale by your company in different states or counties in the United States. All your visitors need to do is click on their desired state or county of your property map, and then see the list of properties as search results.

You can also use this clickable interactive map to provide specific details about the properties such as nearest schools, public services, financial centers, and places of entertainment. These interactive functions can attract property buyers so you can generate more sales leads for your company.

If you are going to provide a presentation related to the earth or world geography, you can generate a interactive world countries map using an interactive flash map software. Use different color schemes to highlight different continents, countries, or major cities. Users of your website will have an easier time identifying different areas in the world map with related information

Creating interactive maps requires skills and programming efforts. Even if you are a flash expert, you might not want to draw all the maps by hand, and then code all the actionscripts. A professional map building software such as iMapBuilder can be a valuable assistant to make the task a lot easier.

With available map softwares, you can use ready made map templates, or import common image files (such as JPG or GIF image) into the software, then add the elements, such as clickable dots, icons, mouseover tooltips, set different colors for countries, states and regions, etc. All it requires is few mouse clicks and you will find it fun to use.

Interactive map can be used for many purpose. Discover a world filled with possibilities and convert your old static image maps into interactive flash maps!

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