How to apply alt text to separate areas on a large image - InDesign 2024

[Magnolia Writer]

I have an image of the state of Washington.  I want to export it to a PDF on a website.  I want to display alt text for each county on the map as the reader's cursor passes over it.  I have tried several options such as putting placeholder frames on a separate layer.  Also tried various print settings.

searched web forums but all only refer to placing one alt text on one image.  Its hard to believe no one else has tried to do this.

I'm using Adobe CC on a Win 10 PC.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

What you're describing can be done on a web page, by using a "map file" to define clickable areas on a single large image. (Or, at least you used to be able to do this; I vaguely recall seeing that it's one of many deprecated/abandoned methods.) (Or maybe not...)

But no other platform I know of has this feature as an inherent function, PDF included. I think the only way you could make it work is to slice Washington into rectangles, assemble them in ID frames forming a coherent image, and then apply links or alt text to each frame. No guarantees as to how easy that might be, or reliable, and whether or not any PDF viewer besides Acrobat desktop would support the functions.

It might be easier to have one large image of the state and lay invisible rectangles over it for click areas; that would at least eliminate the need to precisely match puzzle pieces for a contiguous image.

Or since you're headed to a website anyway, there's no need to complexicate things up — use HTML to do it; see link above.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Magnolia Writer

How about a vector version of the map?

Or if you need to have satelite version anyway - then vector overlay.