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Sirdots

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Creating links on a web page header created with photoshop/Illustrator

I plan to create a header with Adobe Illustrator for my web page. I will  like to have two links on the image which will be clickable (Home and Contact us) - far right top
How can i put links on the header? The header will possibly be 850px wide and 90px high.

Thanks.
Avatar of Tyler Laczko
Tyler Laczko
Flag of Canada image

You have a couple options. Easiest 2 are:

split the image in 2
-- or --
create an image map
    see - http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_map.asp
Hi Sirdots,
The easier would be to use an an image map, however you would need a tool that can generate the code and coordinates for your shapes.

You can do this using a program like Dreamweaver, or you can use some free tools or online map creators.

You can try the following

Meracl              ImageMap Generator (Freeware Image Map Tool)
http://www.stockholm.bonet.se/meracl/mimg.htm 

Online HTML image map creator
http://www.mobilefish.com/services/image_map/image_map.php

It should be an easy and quick,  If you still need further help you can attach the image and I'll happy provide the coordinates/code.

Cheers!

If you read my comment my second suggestion was that.. Plz read b4 responding just for points.
@professionalcomputersolutions:
Although I should not and I don't usually respond to reponses of other experts, and avoid personal responses but from time to time and with new comers we sometimes are forced to.

Please note that a question is supposed to be responded to by as many experts as possible and it's solely up to the original poster to decide which answer serves best.

Also I'm not here for points and if you have noticed I have more than I need !, unlike many others who are here for them, especially beginners!

Last but not least, I have read your post, and you have mentioned using image maps, but by no means you have provided how to achieve or produce an image map!, the W3 Schools link does not tell you how to generate the coordinates or create the map, thus your answer is not complete.

So kindly try to respect other experts and members of this community to help it serve the intended purpose, as I have respected your post and didn't mention that the W3 link wouldn't help.

Cheers!
You could also slice the image using the slice tool in adobe Illustrator. You can place the images in your HTML giving the 2 slices different links. Since I don't know your amount of experience with HTLM I am not sure how detailed I should be in giving additional instructions. If you are unsure on how to achieve the process of placing the slices, comment back and I will respond with further instructions.
I actually like using both methods mentioned by professionalcomputersolutions. By slicing the image, I can also create other states for each slice and trigger a rollOver behavior with an image map containing the link.

All is quite easily accomplished in Dreamweaver and your favorite image editor.
Avatar of Chris Stanyon
Another option not mentioned is to simply create the links using text (Anchor Tags) and then style and position them over your header image using CSS - this is the CSS zone after all.

This will have some benefits over image maps - it'll be more 'readable' by search engines and screen readers, and you can style the different states of the link (Active, Hover, Visited). Also, if you decide to add more navigation, you don't need to recreate header images and image maps.

Of course, you're limited to the styling you can get with CSS so this method may not be an option for you.

If you want to take this route, create your header image as one image, set it as the background of a DIV, and then inside that DIV include the HTML for the links (a common way of coding navigation is to use UL and LI tags)

You can then style and position your navigation using standard CSS.

Always more than one way to skin a cat :)


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Sirdots

ASKER

Thanks everyone. ChrisStanyon, your solution seems interesting but just tried it now and it doesnt work. I created an image using paint and set it as the background of a div but the image does not show.
Here is my code below.



<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    <head>
        <title>Testing</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/main.css" />
		<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    </head>

    <body>
	<div id="page">
		<div id="header">
			<p> Here is my header </p>
		</div>	
	</div>
	
	</body>
</html>

here is my css
******************

body {
	font-family: Arial,helvetica,sans-serif;
	font-size: 85%;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

#page {
	width: 750px;
	margin: 0 auto;
}

.firstone {
	color: white;
	margin: 0;
}

#header {
	background-image: url(header.JPG); 
}

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header.JPG
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Chris Stanyon
Chris Stanyon
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ASKER

I like this better since if I have to add any new thing i can do so with css  than cutting the image again.