Visible Area tag?

Question

How do I make an html < area /> visible at all times, not just on focus?

Seems it should be as simple as this:

html:

<img src="image.png" width="100" height="100" usemap="#Map" />
<map name="Map" id="Map">
<area shape="circle" coords="50,50,50" href="#" alt="circle" />
</map>

css:

area {border: 1px solid red}

No matter what I do, it seems I cannot affect the styling of an area at all, it genuinely appears immune to css. Any ideas? Also, any other examples of un-style-able tags?

Answer 1

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="page1.html" class="apples"><span>Apples</span></a></li>
    <li><a href="page2.html" class="taters"><span>Taters</span></a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

Answer 2

The area tag just defines space in which the user can click, there is no visual representation of it so you can't really use CSS to style it. I like where you're headed but unfortunately you will probably need to use javascript to overlay a transparent image over the top of your image map to accomplish what you're trying to do.