Understand the Sliced Image Alternative

Although image maps can be fun to create and can give your site a professional look, you might not want to bother with them. If you are interested in having a similar look without the hassle of plotting coordinates, consider using a program that will slice a single image into several pieces and reassemble it into a seamless table. Then you can make each part of the image into a link, just as you would any other kind of image link. For more on how to slice an image and reassemble it, see Chapter 6.

You can use an image editor to slice an image into pieces, but it’s more difficult to achieve precise results when the image is reassembled. It can actually take you more time to do this yourself than if you had done an image map the conventional way. If you are inclined to slice your images, you would be well advised to use an image slicer such as the one included with the CoffeeCup HTML editor (www.coffeecup.com). A sample can be downloaded along with the CoffeeCup HTML Editor as a 30-day free trial. This software slices the image and generates the HTML code necessary for reassembling it. All you have to do is paste it into your document.