Insert a Hotspot using SharePoint Designer 2010

There are a few things that power users can do in SharePoint Designer (SPD) that are perfectly harmless.  Inserting hotspots onto images is one of them.  This doesn’t mean you can unleash yourself onto SPD with gay abandon, please make sure you understand how SharePoint fits together before you start taking on SPD.

Maybe you have an image like a puzzle or map that you’d like to insert links onto.

First insert the image into your Site Page, (not going to explain how to do this.  If you don’t know then you shouldn’t be opening SPD in the first place).  Next copy the first link you’d like to insert onto the image.

Open the site in SPD, (Site Actions – Edit in SharePoint Designer), and you will get the following screen.

Click on Site Pages on the Quick Launch and the page where the image is inserted.

Next click Edit File.

Click on the image on the page once it’s finished loading.  You will see the Picture Tools tab become available on the ribbon.  Hotspot has dropdown options.  Select the applicable shape to match the image shape you have.

Click and drag around the edges of the shape you’d like to insert the link onto. As you let go, the Insert Hyperlink pop up opens.  Paste the link you copied into the Address field.

Click on Screen Tip and insert the text that will be displayed as people move their cursors over the image.  It’s also best practices to always insert a screen tip as the software used for the visually impaired can read these screen tips back to people.  Click OK and OK.

Insert all the other links in the same manner, and when you’re done, save the page.  You’ll notice a little star appear next to the Site Page name once you started editing it.  That means that the page has been edited and not yet saved. Right click on the Site Page name where the star is and click Save.

And you’re done.  Go back to SharePoint and hit F5 to refresh you page.  Hover over the image to see the results.

If you happen to get the error message “Content in the embedded form field may be changed by the server to remove unsafe content. Do you want to reload your page to see the results of the save?” when saving the page, you can view this thread on possible solutions.