Digital photos, like any photo, can be worth a thousand words. But there ought to be an image editor somewhere that can make them even MORE informative.

Some examples:

I've got a picture of my family reunion. 63 people all lined up and smiling. I only see these people once a year, and can't remember everyone. I'd like to tag areas in the photo in a way so that when viewing it on your PC the mouse would activate a pop-up window when it passed over an individual person. The window would contain things like the name, birth date, parents, etc., of that person. It could conceivable include a "more recent", "last year's", or clearer/larger photo of the individual person.

I've got group photos showing all the design workshop projects completed by a semester's class. I'd like to pass my cursor over each object in the photo and have a pop-up window appear with the student's name, possibly the student's photo, materials used, name of the project, and date it was produced.

I've got pictures of complicated pieces of furniture I've built. I'd like to see a pop-up window when my cursor passes over specific areas in the photo. It might have a more detailed close-up of the detail, name the wood that part is made of, or perhaps show what's behind that part of the furniture in the photo.

There are hundreds more reasons to add hot spots to photos, depending on what the photo is of.

Does anyone here know of a photo editing program to do this? I'm guessing it can be done in FLASH, HTML, or some fancy photo editing program. Tell me what it is, and I'll learn it. I have smart photos to make.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

Daniel Tonks...

When I slip my mouse cursor over some of the adds on this site, a yellow text line often appears with information about that add. What's the HTML code used to do that?

Dave

That's just ALT="text" (generally for folks in text mode). It can be combined with an imagemap though (as was done on the "LCD" and buttons at the top of the screen.

Thanks, Daniel.

Now is there any way to defines small areas of a large picture to have their own unique popup?

Sorry to be a pest, I'm just possessed by this at the moment. Seems like it ought to be an easy thing. Perhaps I'll have to write my own program to do it.

Dave

Best idea is to view the source code I use -- things are done with coordinates.

David B: there are several programs that allow you to create "hotspots" quite handily for any photo.

My favorite, for ease-of-use (well, it was easier in earlier versions) and price, is ULead PhotoImpact. You can download a trial copy from their site at www.ulead.com. ... Mike

Thanks, Mike. I'll look up PhotoImpact. Before I do, though, does it require the image to be loaded back into intself to see the hotspots, or does it export to HTML that can be viewed with most any browser?

My first challenge is to "hotspot" some family reunion photos, identifying all the relatives. Then hopefully the image as an HTML file can be emailed to all the relatives and/or posted on a website they can access.

I don't want to create files that require specific software to view. Alternatively, making the photo into an .EXE program that anyone can run intrigues me.

Dave

The HotSpot tool exports to HTML, and has a variety of options for linking, among other things. No viewer is need other than a standard browser. Send me you e-mail address at [email protected] (days) or [email protected], and I will send you a .gif of the tool in action. (I'm away from 3:30 pm DST until Sunday evening...) ... Mike