Someone suggested that I create an Image Map of my image heavy homepage, to reduce the initial download time. Do image maps work well on all browsers? Does one type of Image Map work better than another? Any suggestions of a good tutorial website on image maps? I am wondering if I should look into making an image map of the page, or concentrate on reducing my image sizes and optimizing the table cells as much as possible. Is it a good idea to make an image map of the homepage for the site, are there problems with them? Thanks!

I suggest that you start on learning how to slice an image correctly and you will not depend so much on image maps, using your image as the link instead of an image map. Also depend on your audience and what browser they use. I would stay away from image maps if I could but I use them sparinkly in my websites.

I use an imagemap occasionally as a header graphic when I don't have time to slice and dice. Then use an imagemap generator (there are free ones on download.com) to generate a quick imagemap. It seems like I always go back and slice it though.
Kevin

It's better to use an image map rather than separate images as links,but you should read a lot about them & to learn how to indicate the right direction of the link.

There are actually plenty of browsers and browsing environments that will not accept image maps, most notably text browsers, screenreaders and mobile browsing devices. I would stay away from them if at all possible.