HTML 5 <area> Tag

The HTML <area> tag is used for defining an area in an image map. Image maps are images with clickable areas (sometimes referred to as "hotspots") that usually link to another page.

Note that this tag is always nested within the <map> tag.

Demo

<img src ="/pix/mueller_hut/mueller_hut_t.jpg"
width="225" height="151" border="0"
alt="Mueller Hut, Mount Cook, and I"
usemap ="#muellermap" />

<map id ="muellermap"
name="muellermap">
  <area shape ="rect" coords ="90,80,120,151"
  href ="javascript:alert('Me');"
  alt="Me" />
  <area shape ="poly" coords ="55,55,120,80,90,80,90,100,70,100,20,80,55,55"
  href ="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Cook" target="_blank"
  alt="Mount Cook" />
  <area shape ="poly" coords ="145,80,145,100,215,90,215,80,180,60,145,80"
  href ="http://www.natural-environment.com/places/mueller_hut.php" target="_blank"
  alt="Mueller Hut" />
</map>

Attributes

HTML tags can contain one or more attributes. Attributes are added to a tag to provide the browser with more information about how the tag should appear or behave. Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals (=) sign, with the value surrounded by double quotes. Here's an example, style="color:black;".

There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.

The attributes that you can add to this tag are listed below.

Element-Specific Attributes

The following table shows the attributes that are specific to this tag/element.

Attribute Description

alt Alternate text. This specifies text to be used in case the browser/user agent can't render the image.

coords

Specifies the coordinates of the clickable area. Coordinates are specified as follows:

rect: left, top, right, bottom
circle: center-x, center-y, radius
poly: x1, y1, x2, y2, ...

shape

Defines a shape for the clickable area. Possible values:

default
rect
circle
poly

href Specifies the URL of a page or the name of the anchor that the link goes to.

target Specifies the target frame to load the page into.

download

Indicates that the link is to be used for downloading a resource (such as a file). The author can specify a default file name by providing a value. This attribute is optional.

Value:

[Default file name.] (optional)

rel

Describes the relationship between the current document and the destination URI. Only to be used when the href attribute is present. Multiple values can be provided, separated by a space.

Possible values:

Value	Description
alternate	Gives alternate representations of the current document.
author	Gives a link to the current document's author.
bookmark	Provides the permalink for the nearest ancestor section.
help	Provides a link to context-sensitive help.
license	Indicates that the main content of the current document is covered by the copyright license described by the referenced document.
next	Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the next document in the series is the referenced document.
nofollow	Indicates that the current document's original author or publisher does not endorse the referenced document. This attribute is often used to declare paid links to search engines such as Google, who, request that webmasters declare all paid links (eg, advertising) in this manner.
noreferrer	Requires that the user agent not send an HTTP `Referer` (sic) header if the user follows the hyperlink.
prefetch	Specifies that the target resource should be preemptively cached.
prev	Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the previous document in the series is the referenced document.
search	Gives a link to a resource that can be used to search through the current document and its related pages.
tag	Gives a tag (identified by the given address) that applies to the current document.

hreflang Language code of the destination URL. Only to be used when the href attribute is present.

type Specifies the MIME type of the linked resource. Only to be used when the href attribute is present.

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags.

accesskey
class
contenteditable
contextmenu
dir
draggable
dropzone
hidden
id
itemid
itemprop
itemref
itemscope
itemtype
lang
spellcheck
style
tabindex
title
translate

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handler Content Attributes

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

Here are the standard HTML 5 event handler content attributes.

onabort
oncancel
onblur
oncanplay
oncanplaythrough
onchange
onclick
oncontextmenu
ondblclick
ondrag
ondragend
ondragenter
ondragexit
ondragleave
ondragover
ondragstart
ondrop
ondurationchange
onemptied
onended
onerror
onfocus
onformchange
onforminput
oninput
oninvalid
onkeydown
onkeypress
onkeyup
onload
onloadeddata
onloadedmetadata
onloadstart
onmousedown
onmousemove
onmouseout
onmouseover
onmouseup
onmousewheel
onpause
onplay
onplaying
onprogress
onratechange
onreadystatechange
onscroll
onseeked
onseeking
onselect
onshow
onstalled
onsubmit
onsuspend
ontimeupdate
onvolumechange
onwaiting

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.

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