Image maps are images on a Web site that contain multiple links to other files. Different areas of an image map, called hot spots, link to different URLs. Image maps can contain links to text files; other images; audio, video, or multimedia files; other pages in the Web site; or other Web sites. The hot spots cannot extend beyond the edges of the image.

Image maps are similar to slices in enabling you to link an area of an image to a URL (see HTML Image Splitter for example). However, image maps offer the advantage of enabling you to link circular, polygonal, or rectangular areas in an image, while slices enable you to link only rectangular areas. (If you need to link only rectangular areas, using slices may be preferable to using an image map).