Image maps not appearing in Word or PDF outputs

[mdgates]

I added an image map to a topic using the Image Map Editor. I generated WebHelp and the links appear fine. But when I generated my Word target (with a PDF), the links don't appear in either the Word or PDF outputs. Any ideas?

[SteveS]

I don't think images maps are supposed to translate to printed output. They are a visual navigation tool after all.

What you may have to do is create some xrefs and use conditional tags so they only appear in printed output.

Unless, of course, I've misunderstood...

[mdgates]

I need to describe this better. Previously, I had a diagram .jpg that I imported into a FrameMaker file. I created image maps on the diagram .jpg so that when I generated a PDF from the FrameMaker file, if the user clicked in a block of the diagram, a link would take them to another page. I want to recreate this in Flare. So after I imported the FrameMaker file into Flare,I created new image maps in the diagram. The image maps work in my WebHelp targets but not in the PDF.

[LTinker68]

Are you creating the PDF directly from Flare or using the option to create the PDF via Framemaker?

[KevinDAmery]

As Steve says, I don't think image maps work in print output formats, only in online (i.e. HTML-based) formats. This is similar to Word ignoring Divs etc.

It would be cool if you could put image maps in PDFs; if you want to submit a feature request, you can do so here:

http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[mdgates]

Lisa,

Yes, I'm generating the PDFs directly from Flare.

Thanks.

[LTinker68]

I don't have a project to test this in, but in the image map, make sure you set the destination to not open in a popup window. Try the default destination first, but if that doesn't work, try parent frame or same frame. Since you probably want popup windows in your online output, that means you'll probably have to have two images and image maps -- one for online (target=popup window) and one for print (target=default).

[mdgates]

I've tried all suggestions but can't get the links to work in my PDF. I think this is simply a feature that Flare doesn't currently support. I'm going to enter a new feature request. In the mean time, I'll add the links directly into the PDF using Acrobat. Not the best solution but it's the only alternative I can think of.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[doc_guy]

Yeah, Flare doesn't seem to have any concept of PDF interactivity. Flare seems to see PDF as a printed output. It doesn't pass anything that is at all interactive into the printed output, so it doesn't get image maps, etc. from the Flare source.

I don't even know if this is something Flare COULD do, at least with the engine they are using to build the PDFs. AFAIK, Flare uses a PDF builder module for the .NET framework. I don't think the MadCap gurus are doing the heavy lifting on this part of the code, so I don't know how much control they have over it.

(But what do I know? Pretty much not much. <grin>)

[scott]

I think this is a great feature request.

Flare can convert basic interactive elements like hyperlinks to PDF, so it might be able to convert image maps too. FrameMaker can convert image maps to PDF, so I know it's possible....

By the way, I tried another approach--adding a link to a DIV layer and positioning the DIV on top of the image. Unfortunately, the positioning is lost when you convert to PDF.

[mdgates]

I submitted a feature request and got this response: "This is currently as designed. The image map links are stripped out on print outputs.
I put a request in to development that Flare maintain the image map links when generating Print outputs where possible. They will evaluate it and if it gets included in the next version of Flare, you will be notified."

I'm not sure why "image map links are stripped out on print outputs." I can't see any harm in leaving them in, even if the PDF is printed. I don't consider a PDF just something to print out. PDFs are entities unto themselves and I suspect most folks don't print them out. So the functionality (like the image maps) within a PDF is important. Okay, I'll get off my soap box. But image mapping is fairly basic functionality. My nemisis FrameMaker has supported image mapping for years.

Anyway, I'm just hoping that the feature is in a future release.

[sdcinvan]

I wasted the last hour or so trying to get image maps to work in my published PDF files.

Now I realize that PDF files are not supported!
At first, it also didn't work for HTML output. http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... e_Maps.htm doesn't bother to point out that you can't use "mc-thumbnail: popup" with image maps!

PDF files are absolutely capable of handling the image mapping. When is Madcap going to realize that PDF output doesn't always mean PRINTED output?

This is extremely disappointing on the two issues.

[sdcinvan]

My list of features not supported in Flare - compared to FM or even Word - is growing larger.