jQuery Plugin, MapHilight:
You might find the jQuery plugin MapHilight (dead link!!!) to be of interest here.
- Map of the United States Demo (dead link!!!)
New link: https://github.com/kemayo/maphilight
New demo: https://home.ctw.utwente.nl/slootenvanf/wp-content/uploads/examples/archive/jquery_plugins/imagemap/
HTML/CSS Alternative
I would suggest using a div, with absolute links within. The reason being, this will degrade very nicely and show all of the options as a list of links. Image maps won’t be so friendly. Furthermore, this alternative will deliver the same results, with cleaner and more modern practices.
#myImage {
position:relative; width:640px; height:100px;
background-image:url("bkg.jpg");
}
a.apples {
display:block; position:absolute;
top:0; left:0; width:100px; height:100px;
border:1px solid red;
}
a.taters {
display:block; position:absolute;
top:0; left:200px; width:25px; height:25px;
border:1px dotted orange;
}
#myImage a span {
display:none;
}
—
<div id="myImage">
<ul>
<li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1906734/page1.html" class="apples"><span>Apples</span></a></li>
<li><a href="page2.html" class="taters"><span>Taters</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>