An image map is a regular picture in jpg, gif or png format with a list of coordinates associated with it, which define different active (clickable) areas. Each area may have a separate hyperlink or a script action attached to it (unlike non-mapped pictures, which can only be linked to a single file or associated with only one script function).

Image maps can't be directly protected by the ImageGuardian - the image itself will be secured as any other, but the links associated with the defined areas of the map will not work.
( in case ImageGuardian is not enabled, maps in the encrypted file will work as in the original file, you don't have to do anything )

However it's possible to protect an image map with the program - but this requires some tweaking, proceed as follows:

- first, create a transparent gif file with exactly the same size as the image to which the map is attached. For this purpose you can use almost any application with images editing capabilities, like for example Photoshop.

- put the transparent gif created in the previous step over the map image - this can be easily done in many ways, for example with absolutely or relatively positioned SPAN or DIV tags.
It is important to ensure that the transparent file is above the map, not below it.
To set one element to appear over another element with the same position, you can use the z-index attribute - it sets the stacking order of a posinitioned element relative to other elements within the same parent container. An element with a higher z-index value will be positioned on top of an element with a lower value.
Note that you may achieve the same result without defining a z-index - if such is missing, the stacking order is defined by the position of each element in the source code of the file. The general rule if no indexes are specified is that what comes first in the source appears at the lowest level, what comes next appears on top of it.

- attach the map coordinates to the transparent gif instead of the real file.
- exclude the gif file from image protection as explained in the documentation, by inserting in the page source code a comment tag like <!--ig_exclude:transp.gif --> (for details check the program's help file).
- encrypt the html file that displays the map, with ImageGuardian turned on (to enable it click the 'Settings' button, go to the approprite tab and check the box 'Enable Image Guardian'. Then save the changes.)