Can't get rid of &nbsp "paragraphs" when converting

Y|yukichigai · 01-21-2012, 12:33 AM

I'm having a rather frustrating problem converting a few HTML ebooks I have. I'm converting them to ePub, but this happens with almost any format I convert to.

The problem I'm having is that the converted ePub has triple-spacing between each paragraph. I checked the source HTML file and discovered the cause: each paragraph has an extra "spacing" paragraph containing only one non-breaking space (&nbsp). The spacing paragraphs are all identical:

Code:

<p style='margin:0mm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span></p>

I figured I could strip this out easily using Search and Replace, so I set up a quick regex to find the paragraphs in question. When tested it worked just as intended... at least in test:

Code:

<p .*>\s*</span></p>

Unfortunately, that didn't work. For whatever reason the rule doesn't trigger during conversion at all, and yes I've tried with something other than a blank space in the Replacement Text field. I've tried replacing \s* with   to no effect. I've even tried copying the entire paragraph code into the Search field: no luck. I'm at a loss here. Any ideas?

Oh, and using the "remove spacing between paragraphs" option does nothing, before someone suggests it.

user_none · 01-21-2012, 06:34 PM

Most likely the   is being converted to the Unicode character it represents. \s will not match this. Try copying and pasting the character from the book viewer into the regex.

kovidgoyal · 01-21-2012, 10:15 PM

Do not look at the source html, that is not what the search and replace rules run on, use the wizard in calibre to look at the actual html that the rules run on.

Y|yukichigai · 01-23-2012, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Do not look at the source html, that is not what the search and replace rules run on, use the wizard in calibre to look at the actual html that the rules run on.

I have. Like I said, when I test my regex the wizard finds all of the   paragraphs just fine, but on conversion it misses every last one. This is true even if I use the unicode version of the non-breaking space (i.e. cut-paste from character viewer).

01-21-2012, 12:33 AM	#1
Y\|yukichigai Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 472332 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: iPhone	Can't get rid of &nbsp "paragraphs" when converting I'm having a rather frustrating problem converting a few HTML ebooks I have. I'm converting them to ePub, but this happens with almost any format I convert to. The problem I'm having is that the converted ePub has triple-spacing between each paragraph. I checked the source HTML file and discovered the cause: each paragraph has an extra "spacing" paragraph containing only one non-breaking space (&nbsp). The spacing paragraphs are all identical: Code: <p style='margin:0mm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> </span></p> I figured I could strip this out easily using Search and Replace, so I set up a quick regex to find the paragraphs in question. When tested it worked just as intended... at least in test: Code: <p .>\s</span></p> Unfortunately, that didn't work. For whatever reason the rule doesn't trigger during conversion at all, and yes I've tried with something other than a blank space in the Replacement Text field. I've tried replacing \s* with   to no effect. I've even tried copying the entire paragraph code into the Search field: no luck. I'm at a loss here. Any ideas? Oh, and using the "remove spacing between paragraphs" option does nothing, before someone suggests it.

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01-21-2012, 06:34 PM	#2
user_none Sigil & calibre developer Posts: 2,488 Karma: 1063785 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida, USA Device: Nook STR	Most likely the   is being converted to the Unicode character it represents. \s will not match this. Try copying and pasting the character from the book viewer into the regex.

01-21-2012, 10:15 PM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,843 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Do not look at the source html, that is not what the search and replace rules run on, use the wizard in calibre to look at the actual html that the rules run on.