displaying image map outlines

[Tech_Writer_KC]

Hello,

I am building a help section that uses screenshots that users can mouse over and click different sections to display pop-up text.

Everything's working fine, but I was wondering if there's any way to set it so that the image map outlines (i.e. the red outlines that display in the project), or something similar, display when the user mouses over them.

My thinking is that it'd be nice to have a way to visually indicate that the image is clickable, and broken by sections. Although the cursor does change when mousing over, I'm not sure if that's a visible enough effect, and I'd prefer a visual cue than having to include a line of text indicating the image is clickable.

[Peter Grainge]

You need to create those coloured outlines using something like RoboScreenCapture and add the hotspots to match after.

[Pete_Lees]

Hi, Tech Writer KC,

You can also use scripting to replace one image with another as the user moves the mouse pointer over it. See this article for details and examples:

http://www.irt.org/articles/js026/index.htm

Pete

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

Another option that I find really awesome to do is to use Adobe Captivate to accomplish things like this. And if you have opted for the Technical Communication Suite, you should have it available.

Cheers... Rick

[Tech_Writer_KC]

I'm not familiar with scripting, and we only have standalone RH7, not the full TCS.

What software beyond RH7 would be required for scripting?

[Pete_Lees]

Hi,

You don't need any extra software to write JavaScript code, as you can do this in a text editor like Notepad. That's how I created the sample HTML Help project that I've just uploaded to the following location:

http://rapidshare.com/files/129219384/ImageMapSample.zip.html

This illustrates how to use the first of the techniques described in the irt.org article. Hope it gives you some ideas of how to achieve similar effects in your own help projects.

Pete