COMMENTS batch formatting

[ippopom]

Hi to all

I have a huge library and I added books descriptions inside "comments" by copying and pasting description (synopsis) from web pages.
So the result is an incredible variety of different styles and fonts (formatting).

Is there a way to batch change the comments formatting in order to make them uniform ?

ThX by Ippopom

PS
the "erase formatting" button remove only the fonts attribute... but bakground colors and alignment remain untouched......

[calvin-c]

This won't help with the batch formatting but you can avoid the problem in the future by using a text editor (like Windows Notepad) between the web & Calibre. Paste from Web into the text editor then cut from there & paste into Calibre. Running things thru a text editor strips off most attributes like fonts & colors. Alignment depends-it often turns tabs into multiple spaces but will strip most other alignment properties.

[kovidgoyal]

Use the search and replace tab in the bulk metadata editor to strip all html tags. Something like

Search: <.*[^>]+>
Replace:

Remember to backup your library before doing bulk search and replace.

[ippopom]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use the search and replace tab in the bulk metadata editor to strip all html tags. Something like

Search: <.*[^>]+>
Replace:

Remember to backup your library before doing bulk search and replace.

kovidgoyal TnX a lot for suggestion

And TnX to Calvin too, I done what you suggested but I have a really massive library so the twice copy paste (to a text editor and inside comments) is a little bit "time wasting".

[ippopom]

mmh tried but doesn't work (it seems)

[theducks]

Those are REGEX patterns. Select REGEX match mode

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by ippopom

And TnX to Calvin too, I done what you suggested but I have a really massive library so the twice copy paste (to a text editor and inside comments) is a little bit "time wasting".

Yeah, it's really only worthwhile for the initial entry-and maybe only in Windows where you can keep the Notepad window open beside Calibre, and maybe your Web browser. What I do is find the comments I want to keep in Calibre's download metadata screen. If I like how they're formatted I let Calibre download them-but sometimes I like the comments from one source & the other metadata (like publisher/date) from another. So I highlight the comments in the download window, Ctrl+C to copy to the clipboard, mouse-click to the open Notepad window, back to Calibre & finish the metadata download from whichever source. Then back to Notepad, Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+C to copy it, then back to Calibre & highlight whatever's in the comments, then Ctrl+C to paste from notepad. Really only takes a second or so if I don't have to edit anything or search out other sources-not much time at all compared to the time it takes Calibre to find the metadata in the 1st place. But you're right about it being a time waster for comments that have already been entered into Calibre. I'm not an expert with Regular Expressions but I have used them and that's a better approach for modifying Comments 'in place'.

[ippopom]

Originally Posted by theducks

Those are REGEX patterns. Select REGEX match mode

ops..... you totally right .... TnX

It work adjusting the expression in this way: <[^>]+>