removing links from text .

[rolgiati]

I am editing a text that was originally on a web-page, and contains various links to other web-pages.

Is there a simple way to remove the links, without loosing the rest of the page formatting ?

[Notjohn]

Well, if it's only "various" links, it shouldn't involve much effort simply to delete the <a href="xxxx.htm"> and the closing </a> links in Code View.

Indeed, find&replace would wipe out the </a> in one go.

[mrmikel]

You would have to be careful you did not remove footnotes which were links as well. You would search for http or www.

[cybmole]

find <a .*</a>
replace with nothing
- takes out all links, assuming there is nothing of value inside the anchor tags.

be careful because I've had instances where chapter names/numbers are also inside of those & thus a more complex expression is needed to preserve them

[Ahmad Samir]

Originally Posted by cybmole

find <a .*</a>
replace with nothing
- takes out all links, assuming there is nothing of value inside the anchor tags.

be careful because I've had instances where chapter names/numbers are also inside of those & thus a more complex expression is needed to preserve them

I'd use
<a .*?</a>
to make the matching non-greedy.

@rolgiati: it always helps if you post a snippet of the HTML code you want to modify.

[cybmole]

good catch - but I think it worked ok anyway for me.
I often strip these otherwise the chapter names/numbers appear as blue+underline because they look like hyperlinks - and I prefer plain black. my sony reader insists on underlining anything in <a> tags, irrespective of styling

but sometimes there's a horrendous collection of spans & styles all on the same single chapter header line, esp if the opening letter is differently styled, so it can get quite messy

[rolgiati]

Originally Posted by Ahmad Samir

@rolgiati: it always helps if you post a snippet of the HTML code you want to modify.

Here is a snippet:

looks like <a class="pcalibre" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=98PYVYGFCIIC&amp;pg=PA54&amp;lpg=PA54&amp ;dq=dimethylcadmium&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=oK-NDQqout&amp;sig=wDDF0qwknz3G-twxMl_6B8Di5lk&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=IhSDUdyMD NW-4AO51oCYAw&amp;ved=0CDMQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&amp;q=d imethylcadmium&amp;f=false">extremely tedious work</a>, which allows you

In this exemple I would like to be able to remove everything from <a class to false">, and </a>, without loosing extremely tedious work.

[cybmole]

find <a class="pcalibre" href.*?>
replace with <a class="pcalibre" >

the .*? should match all text up to the 1st >

test it first!

[Ahmad Samir]

Find:
<a class="pcalibre" href="http://books\.google\.com.+?>(.+?)</a>

Replace with:
\1

[cybmole]

the correct answer depends on whether he still wants to apply class="pcalibre" to the text

[rolgiati]

My thanks for the suggestions;
I finally got the result by replacing <a class="pcalibre" href.*?> with nothing, then </a> with nothing.

Originally Posted by Ahmad Samir

Replace with: \1

did not work, it put /1 in place of the link text !
Possibly the find and replace does not understand a regex in the replacement text.

[rolgiati]

Originally Posted by cybmole

the correct answer depends on whether he still wants to apply class="pcalibre" to the text

In fact I wanted to remove the links completely.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by rolgiati

My thanks for the suggestions;
I finally got the result by replacing <a class="pcalibre" href.*?> with nothing, then </a> with nothing.
did not work, it put /1 in place of the link text !
Possibly the find and replace does not understand a regex in the replacement text.

If \1 gets put into the Text, you did not have any 'capture area' defined . the (.+?) in the original suggestion, which would leave the 'visible text' of the link still in place.
old:

 <a class="pcalibre" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=98PYVYGFCIIC&amp;pg=PA54&amp;lpg=PA54&amp ;dq=dimethylcadmium&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=oK-NDQqout&amp;sig=wDDF0qwknz3G-twxMl_6B8Di5lk&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=IhSDUdyMD NW-4AO51oCYAw&amp;ved=0CDMQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&amp;q=d imethylcadmium&amp;f=false">extremely tedious work</a>,

New:

extremely tedious work

[Ahmad Samir]

Originally Posted by rolgiati

My thanks for the suggestions;
I finally got the result by replacing <a class="pcalibre" href.*?> with nothing, then </a> with nothing.
did not work, it put /1 in place of the link text !
Possibly the find and replace does not understand a regex in the replacement text.

It's \1 not /1
: )

[shotsky]

Originally Posted by rolgiati

Here is a snippet:

looks like <a class="pcalibre" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=98PYVYGFCIIC&amp;pg=PA54&amp;lpg=PA54&amp ;dq=dimethylcadmium&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=oK-NDQqout&amp;sig=wDDF0qwknz3G-twxMl_6B8Di5lk&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=IhSDUdyMD NW-4AO51oCYAw&amp;ved=0CDMQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&amp;q=d imethylcadmium&amp;f=false">extremely tedious work</a>, which allows you

In this exemple I would like to be able to remove everything from <a class to false">, and </a>, without loosing extremely tedious work.

I realize this is long solved, but I do these things all the time, so even a late reply might help someone.
The regex would be to replace <a\x20[^\r\n<>]+http[^\r\n<>]+>([^\r\n<>]*)</a> with $1. The link would be removed, and the text, if any would be retained. Only possible problem is if the </a> is missing.
If further explanation is wanted by anyone, let me know.
John