Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

COORDS — NN all IE all HTML 3.2

Synopsis

COORDS=”coord1, ... coordN"

Optional

Although the formal W3C definition for the COORDS attribute of an AREA element states that the attribute is optional, that doesn’t mean that you can omit this attribute and expect an AREA to behave as it should. The COORDS attribute lets you define the outline of the area to be associated with a particular link or scripted action. Some third-party authoring tools can assist in determining the coordinate points for a hot area. You can also load the image into a graphics program that displays the cursor position in real time and then transfer those values to the COORDS attribute values.

Coordinate values are entered as a comma-delimited list. If two areas overlap, the area that is defined earlier in the HTML code takes precedence.

Example

<AREA COORDS="20,30,120,70" HREF="contents.html" TARGET="display">

Value

Each coordinate is a length value, but the number of coordinates and their order depend on the shape specified by the SHAPE attribute, which may optionally be associated with the element. For SHAPE="rect", there are four coordinates (left, top, right, bottom); for SHAPE="circle", there are three coordinates (center-x, center-y, radius); for SHAPE="poly", there are two coordinate values for each point that defines the shape of the polygon (x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3,...xN, yN).

Default

None.

Object Model Reference

IE

[window.]document.all.elementID.coords