Technical data

Preparing Web Graphics 85
♦ Use animations sparingly on Web pages. Like all attention
grabbers, they can lose their impact if overused. Also, animated
.GIFs (because of the additional image information) are
substantially larger than a static graphics, a consideration if you
expect people to view your pages over a slow Internet connection.
Image Slicing
Image slicing and image maps are two convenient ways to create
navigation bars and clickable graphics for Web pages. With image
slicing, a graphic is carved up into smaller graphics—each of which can
have its own link, like any Web graphic—and PhotoPlus saves the
sections as separate files when you export the image. The process also
exports HTML tags describing a table containing the separate graphics,
allowing a Web browser to reassemble them seamlessly. The result
appears as a single larger graphic, but with different regions linked to
different targets.
For example, this menubar graphic...
...can be sliced into four separate graphics, each linked to a different
Web page.
The Image Slice tool lets you divide the image into sections, which can
be exported using the .GIF or .JPG format. You can specify alternate
text and URL links for each of the image sections individually.
Slicing an image
The Image Slice tool looks like a small, black-handled knife.
When it is selected, the cursor also changes to a small knife.
To slice an image horizontally (left to right) select the image slice tool
and left-click on the image. Shift-click to slice an image vertically (top
to bottom). Repeat as many times as necessary. Each click inserts a red
slice guide. You can move a guide up or down by dragging it, or delete
a guide by dragging it out of the image window.
To specify the alternate text and/or URL link for an image slice, right-
click it and enter the information into the dialog, then click OK.