How to Make a Sigmap on "GaiaOnline"

Gaia Online is a popular avatar-based website for teenagers and young adults. The website features extensive social networking capabilities. One of the most popular features is the Gaia Online forums. A signature map, or sigmap, is a customized image with a number of website links which appears at the end of your posts. Basic HTML knowledge is useful if you wish to create your own sigmap.

Things You'll Need

• Graphics editing software

Instructions

1. Open your graphics editing software and create a box no larger than 500x500.

2. Use the line tool or border tool to create smaller boxes within the primary box. Each box represents a different website link, so create as many or as few as you wish.

3. Use the text tool to label each of the smaller boxes, such as "My Homepage" or "My Email." Save the image as a JPEG file.

4. Upload the image to an image hosting site.

5. Open Notepad and type the following code:

   default http://www.gaiaonline.com

   rect http://yourlink1

   rect http://yourlink2

   rect http://yourlink3

   Replace "yourlink" with the appropriate website URLs. "Rect" stands for the rectangles you create in your image.

6. Open your image in MS Paint.

7. Hover your mouse over the upper right corner. Copy the coordinates next to the corresponding link in Notepad as follows:

   rect http://www.example.com 13,16 94,48

   Repeat with the lower right corner of each rectangle.

8. Save the file. Title it "signature.map" and save it as a text file.

9. Upload "signature.map" to a free webpage hosting site, such as Angelfire or Google Sites.

10. Go to GaiaOnline and select "Edit Profile." Go to "Edit Signature." Paste the following into your signature section:

    [URL=http://www.example.com/signature.map][IMGMAP]http://www.example.com/imagemap.jpg[/IMGMAP][/URL]

    Replace the "URL" with the address of your hosted signature.map file. Replace "IMGMAP" with the hosted address of your image file.

11. Save your changes and view your profile.

Tips & Warnings

• It is important to use MS Paint because you need the coordinates for the rectangles.

References

• GaiaOnline: Sigmap/Image Map Tutorial