CSS image map

[rmartin]

First, thanks for a great site and forum

I am currently using a tab navigation at the top of all my web pages. I have a drop down menu on one of the tabs for my 'gallery' pages. I've witnessed more than one person having difficulty using the drop down links. Seems easy to those who use them all the time, but in the real world, people react differently.

I was thinking of changing the 'gallery' tab drop down to single link to a page with the different galleries listed, but I want something more than a basic list. I have eight different galleries, and I thought of creating an image map. I've read that image maps are 'old school' and aren't popular anymore. So what I have in mind, is to create square and rectangle image links overlapping each other at the corners in a circle(ish) using CSS absolute positioning.

I guess my question is part technical and part aesthetic.

I see two possibilities.

I make one large image, break it into smaller ones and rearange it as table with links, or

Create eight different image links of different sizes and use CSS to position them, overlapping them slightly.

Which of the two is the better way, or is there a third even better way?

Thanks you,
Rmartin

[djr33]

I suggest just going with the map. Replacing it, likely awkwardly, won't really help anything.

The map should work fine. They've kinda grown out of fashion, but that's no reason to do a shortcut to recreate one.