Hotspots

Introduction

In Adobe FrameMaker, a hotspot is an active area in a document that you can link to different areas of the document, to another document, or to a URL. You can apply hotspots to the following objects:

• Graphic objects

• Images

• Anchored frames

• Graphics frames

• Text frames

• Text lines

• Equations

FrameMaker supports the following shapes for hotspots:

• Line

• Arc

• Polyline

• Freehand curve

• Rectangle

• Rounded rectangle

• Oval

• Polygon

You can create hotspots in graphic objects and link them to textual objects in the same or other documents. You can superimpose an invisible hotspot over an image to link to any relevant text or detail in the document.

With hotspots, you can add multiple links in different parts of a graphic without having to divide the graphic into separate parts. For example, in a world map, you can create hotspots in each of the countries linking to more information about that country within a document, in other documents, or at a web address.

Hotspots are supported everywhere in the FrameMaker documents, including the master pages. A use case for hotspots on master page is a clickable logo for every page of the document that takes the user to a webpage.

Hotspots look like other graphic objects. In edit mode, you can select a hotspot and edit the properties. In view mode, when you hover the mouse over the hotspot, the cursor changes to indicate active, clickable area.

You can link a hotspot in one document to another. PDFs support only rectangular hotspots. Hotspots of any other shape are converted to rectangular hotspots when you create the PDFs. Other outputs, such as HTML support hotspots of other shapes such as oval. If you want to scale, rotate, and translate hotspots with the anchor frame, group the hotspots with the anchor frame. While saving XML, FrameMaker saves the graphic containing the hotspots in a MIF file. While opening the XML file again, FrameMaker brings back the hotspot information into the FrameMaker file from the MIF file. Some other output types that support hotspots are: HTML and Multiscreen output.

The Hotspots panel displays the available hotspots in a document or all open documents. Using the Hotspots panel, you can edit, delete, and delink the existing hotspots.

Create hotspots using hotspot properties

To create a hotspot using hotspot properties, do the following:

1. Insert a hypertext marker of type Named Destination. Apart from a Named Destination marker, you can link hotspots to URLs.

2. Right-click an object and in the drop-down list, select Hotspot Properties.

3. In the Create Hotspot dialog, do one of the following:

   1. Select the target document for the link. FrameMaker displays the available markers in the selected document. Select the appropriate instance.

   2. Enter the target URL. The URL length is limited to 1011 bytes. 1011 bytes can contain 1011 single-byte characters or 506 double-byte characters.

4. Enter the target URL. The URL length is limited to 1011 bytes. 1011 bytes can contain 1011 single-byte characters or 506 double-byte characters.

5. Click Save.

   You can now test the link by holding ctrl+alt keys and clicking the hotspot. You can generate PDF or other outputs.

Create hotspots using graphics toolbar

To create a hotspot using the graphics toolbar, do the following:

1. In the Graphics toolbar, click Hotspot Mode.

2. Create any graphics object. The Hotspot dialog is displayed.

3. In the Hotspot dialog, do one of the following:

   1. Select the target document for the link. FrameMaker displays the available markers in the selected document. Select the appropriate instance.

   2. Enter the target URL. The URL length is limited to 1011 bytes. 1011 bytes can contain 1011 single-byte characters or 506 double-byte characters.

4. Specify a tool tip. Maximum tool tip length is 1023 bytes. 1023 bytes can contain 1023 single-byte characters or 511 double-byte characters. The Tooltip Text is optional.

5. Click Save.

   You can now test the link by holding ctrl+alt keys and clicking the hotspot. You can generate PDF or other outputs.

Create hotspots in vector graphics

You can create multiple hotspots in vector graphics, such as a CGM file, imported in a FrameMaker document.

The various parts of the CGM graphic can be made different hotspots.

Delink a hotspot

You can delink a hotspot to remove the hotspot information from graphic object.

In the Hotspot panel, select the hotspot entry and click Delink or choose Graphics > Delink Hotspot.

Alternatively, right click a hotspot and then from the drop-down list select Delink Hotspot.