Image maps and alt and title attributes

[Marcia]

I'm assuming the alt attribute can't be used, but can links in an image map use the title="whatever" attribute?

It now looks like this:
<area shape=rect coords="0,0,175,240" href="index.html">

BTW, it's a Yahoo store, if that makes any difference.

[fathom]

Sure can.

A title attribute can be use in any element: links, objects, tables, etc.

<area shape=rect coords="0,0,175,240" href="index.html" title="will display on the mouse over of the link area"> is just a variation of the element. alt="" will display as default on image area without any link shape defined.

Be sure to keep titles short, Netscape displays one long string that can run off the view screen.

[luma]

You can and should have alt tags. One for the image and one ALT for each link. Have a look at Providing text equivalents for image maps [diveintoaccessibility.org] for more information on this.

[Marcia]

>Be sure to keep titles short
Always, fathom! The first thing generally done is stripping out the 99 words of alt text, voluminous comments, half-page long meta tags - all the bloat junk.

That's a great link, luma. And the non-design is a minimalist's delight.

It's always amazing that what's good for accessibility also happens to usually be search engine friendly, and just good old common sense.

Never having had the experience of dealing with a Yahoo store, I'm not certain yet what the capabilities are for indiviualization in the code. From seeing a number of them, it looks like they can be unique design, but most of them seem to be template styles with a left menu that looks like button graphics but is actually an image map. It's yet to be seen what can be done with those stores.

I've always shied away from image maps, but they have such design and interface possibilities it's worth taking another look at them, if there are ways to enhance their functionality.

[tedster]

The last image maps I created resulted in Homesite's validator throwing me a warning that alt attributes should be included.

I would suggest using both alt and title attributes if the browser tool-tip is important. The recommendation for browsers is to show the title, which Opera does for instance. But Explorer shows the alt attribute. The future "may" shift towards the W3C recommendation.

<added>Image maps also offer the ability to create image hot spots that are circles or polygons. I've never used that yet, but I can see how that might be very helpful.</added>