Visio2000: Hotspot Is Missing When You Save as HTML with VML Graphic Format

When you save a Visio drawing as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and select the Vector Markup (VML) graphic format, the resulting Web page may appear to lose its hyperlinks.

This problem occurs when shapes that are grouped to metafiles overlap multiple other shapes that have hyperlinks.

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later: After the hotfix is installed, the following files will have the listed attributes or later:

Workaround

To temporarily work around this problem, open the source for the *._VML.HTM file and locate the path= statement for the affected hyperlink(s). Negate the generated y-coordinates for all but the first hyperlink in the group. For example, if the following statement is generated update the y-coordinate values of the path to be negative as follows: Per the VML specification, you must negate the 449 y-coordinate of the 449l279 block, because this number sequence is actually two coordinates (y-coordinate, the lowercase letter "l", and the x-coordinate). This is VML's way of tagging the beginning coordinate in a path.

Notice a pattern in the path example with the xy-coordinate (217, -449). This coordinate marks both the beginning and end of the path statement, and when the coordinates are drawn, they operate like the MoveTo and LineTo Graphics Device Interface (GDI) commands. As a result, this statement draws a rectangle.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

When Visio generates Web pages with graphics in VML format, the generated *_VML.HTM files contain an image map that overlays the graphical image with an outline or "path" of the specific geometric patterns. The hyperlink information is present; however, Visio negates the y-coordinates on the hotspot path on all but the first hyperlink within a group.