[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by CubGeek

Okay, after reading the <i>, <em> or <span> for italics thread from 2020 [...] [and paying particular attention to Tex2002ans posting about the underlying purposes for <em> and <i> <em>therein</em> () ], I've seen the error of my ways regarding using <span> for setting italics.

The easiest way to do it is to use DiapDealer's fantastic "TagMechanic" plugin.

I explained how to install Sigil plugins in this 2021 post.

And I gave step-by-step instructions on how to use TagMechanic here:

• 2020: "Replacing All Tags Of One Kind With Another"

That will help mass convert your <span class="italics"> -> <i> or <em>.

It will be much safer than trying to use Regular Expressions, because regex can't safely handle complicated cases of <span>s inside of <span>s.

Originally Posted by CubGeek

I've figured out that

<span class="italics">([^>]+)</span>

Find: <span class="italics">([^<]+)</span>
Replace: <i>\1</i>

You see the parentheses you wrapped around your stuff? That's called a "Capture Group".

Explanation of the Find

Let's break it down into each piece:

• <span class="italics">
• (
  
  • [^<]+
    
• )
• </span>

It's saying:

• "Hey, find the italics <span>."
• "You see this open parenthesis? Stick this next stuff into a group!"
  
  • "Keep grabbing everything that's NOT a '<'.
    
• "Closing parenthesis? Everything captured between them goes into GROUP 1!"
• "Hey, find the closing </span>."

Now when you're Replacing, you can use \1 to get "Group #1".

Explanation of the Replace

• <i> = "Put the opening <i>."
• \1 = "Put whatever was captured in GROUP 1 here."
• </i> = "Put the closing </i>."

- - -

Side Note: If you have more complicated regex, you can get up to 9 capture groups!

\1, \2, \3, [...], \9

But at that point, it's probably smarter to split your search/replaces into smaller pieces.

- - -

Side Note #2: If you want some more Regex tricks, I just wrote a post a few months ago here:

• 2022: "Need help with regex"

which linked to some of my other posts over the years. I break down + color-coordinate many of the ones I use.

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I go pretty easy...and it seems to work so far...

find: <i>(.*?)</i>
replace: <em>\1</em>

or

find: <span class="italics>(.*?)</span>
replace: <em>\1</em>

Yep, this type of stuff works too.

Easier/Safer to use Tag Mechanic though. :P

Originally Posted by CubGeek

Since the stuff I'm working on has a combination of <i> for "inside voice," and "named things" as well as <em> for word emphasis, this certainly has been a learning experience!

And I don't know if you caught this topic:

• 2021: "Italics and Bold"

where I explained differences between <i> + <em> even further.