[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

<map> is actually built into HTML itself:

https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_map.asp

but yeah... that won't work in most actual ereaders. While <map> is "officially a part of the EPUB spec":

1. ADE doesn't support it (at least in EPUB2. No idea about their EPUB3 renderer). That throws out the vast majority of dedicated ereaders.
2. Many devices are not touch screen... so there would be no way to click a certain area.

... and I know this wasn't brought up, but I don't even believe Kindles support <map>. I don't see mention of it anywhere in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines.

Are you sure you don't need JS, or at least JSON, etc., for parsing (I know that's not the right term..) the various areas on the map? ??? Are you sure? I know you're a programmer, sweetie. But I could swear that I read something, somewhere in time (far enough back that my ancient brain can't pull it out...) about that. No?

Even if you just wrapped an image in a normal link, such as:

<a href="../Text/TOC.xhtml"><img src="../TableofContents.png" /></a>

there are also quite a few bugs/quirks in readers themselves:

1. Links around images on some devices will not work at all. It will just act as if it was a normal <img>.
2. This will interfere with pan/zoom functionality.
3. There may be absolutely zero indication the image is even clickable. (Unlike a normal hyperlink that is blue+underlined.)

I know for a fact that map's not supported in MOBI. Again, we're not on the Kindle forum, and Diap reminds us about that often enough (cough, cough), but you're right, it's utterly unsupported. You can't really use images as links in MOBI, either, for the same reason--click/tap/pinch activates the image zoom/pan&Scan, not a link. (n.b.: you can still make the image a link, if you think and hope that your audience will click-hold long enough to activate a link, but, then, we're back at square one--half of the Kindleverse doesn't have a viable web-browser, or one at ALL, so...)

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

This is the same fallacy that spawned the 'Ribbon' interface in Microsoft (and other copy-cat) products a few years ago. Mostly, the best sign to a function is the name of that function. And anyone who uses a device soon learns what a link looks like. Not a picture, not a subtle roll-over behaviour, but a piece of blue, underlined text.

Troo dat, Wombat, although I have to confess that I don't object (now) to the Ribbon. Thought it was a pain in the ass at first, but there's some truth, if you're a Word (or other Windows office app) user, there's some convenience to having your most-used at your fingertips. Nonetheless, you're right about the conceptualization behind it.

The OP, though, is talking about giving little kids using images to nav, instead of a typed nav. I can see that usage.

Hitch