Alternative to Image Map for LYNX users

[Thomas Dowling]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Walker <WALKEB05 at stockton.lib.ca.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at library.berkeley.edu>
Date: Saturday, December 20, 1997 1:30 PM
Subject: Alternative to Image Map for LYNX users


> Hello.  In an effort to upgrade and improve the look of our
>library home page, I have designed an image map navigational banner
>at the top of our page (this is just a trial version for now):
>
>http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/welcome.htm
>
> The page looks fine in Netscape and works properly there.
>However, since we still have dumb terminals in many locations at our
>library, I am trying to keep a version alive for LYNX.
> My question is this.  Is there an HTML trick which would allow the
>image map only to display in Netscape.  I have tried various alt=
>phrases within the <img src=....> section and they either don't work
>or cause Netscape to display the map and the old fashioned text
>links.  This looks terrible and defeats the purpose of the image map,
>because the graphic user sees the choices on the map and then as text.
> Any assistance people can provided would be appreciated greatly.
>Thank you in advance.



As Byron Myers has already posted, current versions of Lynx are perfectly
capable of handling client-side imagemaps.  You, as an author, can let Lynx
do its job by providing useful ALT text for both the imagemap itself *and
for each area* (where it is actually required).


So, for example, our home page includes a client-side map whose MAP element
begins:

  <map name="homemap">
  <area shape="rect" coords="102,72, 260,96" alt="Library Catalogs"
    href="/cgi-bin/catalogs.pl">
  <area shape="rect" coords="102,98, 288,122" alt="Research Databases"
    href="/db/">
  <area shape="rect" coords="102,125, 256,148" alt="Electronic Texts"
    href="/cgi-bin/etext.pl">,,,
  </map>

This is then called as:

  <p align="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" border="0"
    alt="OhioLINK Links" usemap="#homemap"></p>

In Lynx, this looks like a link from "OhioLINK Links" to a page like this:

                                OhioLINK Links

MAP: http://www.ohiolink.edu/#homemap

    1. Library Catalogs
    2. Research Databases
    3. Electronic Texts...



Note: if for some reason your sysadmins are sitting on Lynx 2.2 or 2.4.2 and
acting like an upgrade is a major hassle, give them a kick in the pants,
point them to http://www.slcc.edu/lynx/current/ and tell them to devote a
half hour of their time to the project.

Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu