hot spot

See: recombinational hot spot.

Text or a picture in a rich-text field that a user can click to perform an action, run a formula or script, or follow a link.

An area in an image map with a particular significance. A program typically monitors movements of the mouse, and responds according to the actions associated with the hot spots over which it passes. This might include displaying different status information, for instance. Often, clicking the mouse on a hot spot is used to indicate that the program should activate an associated action. The term hot spot is also used to signify a computationally intensive part of a program, such as an inner loop. Such places are often a potential target for program optimization.