illustrator map to imagemap automatically? or is there a better way?

Question

i have a vector illustrator file with all the counties of california as distinct paths. i need to have these counties be links to other pages online. is there a way to automatically generate an html imagemap from this file? illustrator provides an export as jpg function that has options for polygonal imagemap shapes, but it isnt working.

alternatively, do you have an opinion about the usage these days of imagemaps at all and whether i should approach this another way.

yes, i know i could do this in flash but i want to avoid that.

thanks!

Answer 1

You can use the Attributes panel to set a link on each path, and then use Save for Web and Devices to save as HTML or HTML+Image -- that creates an imagemap in the HTML file.

Answer 2

In addition to LHMathies answer please note that the path in Illustrator must not be a compound path in order to use the "Polygon" shape. The HTML output of a Compound Path will result in a "rectangle" shape.

To convert a compound path to a simple path right click the path and select Release Compound Path.

Answer 3

Ah, I was looking for this very solution, and thanks to LHMathies' answer above, and ryandoss's tips, I worked out a complete mini-tutorial, which I put in this other SO thread.

I was able to create an imagemap from a Photoshop file in just a few minutes.