Clean up old Word file

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, I was going to suggest using Toxaris's amazing ePUBTools plugin for Word. You can then tag all the italics and bold, throughout (and underscores, if used), first.

Then cTRL-A and remove all the inline styling and then restore the italics, bold and underscores, throughout.

Sounds great. Although I never messed with that portion of EPUBTools.

What are the exact steps?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Sounds great. Although I never messed with that portion of EPUBTools.

What are the exact steps?

OMG, it's easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.You simply load up ePUBTools and then in the menu, you pick "Additional Tools," and then click "tag formatting."

The plugin replaces the usual i/i tags and the like with unique tags, like markup tags. When you've done that, then you CTRL+A and you remove all formatting, file-wide.

Now you have a perfectly clean file. If you're me, you take an existing set of Styles and Headings, and you CTRL+A again and you apply a body style to the entire file. right?

And then you go back to ePUBTools, back to Additional formatting and you click Tag formatting again and it restores all the italics, bold, underlines. In the extant styles that you just assigned, a few moments earlier.

It really is the best thing since sliced bread for exactly THIS scenario. I was surprised not to see anyone else bring it up. :-)

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Hitch

OMG, it's easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.You simply load up ePUBTools and then in the menu, you pick "Additional Tools," and then click "tag formatting."

Interesting. My "Tag Formatting" button was hidden by default.

This is how I enabled it (in Microsoft Word 2016):

1. Press EPUBTools tab in the ribbon.

2. Press the Settings button.

3. In the settings window, scroll sideways to Configure Ribbon.

4. Uncheck the box for Additional tools > Tag formatting.

(It was the only one that was checked for me... no wonder I never saw it before!)

Originally Posted by Hitch

The plugin replaces the usual i/i tags and the like with unique tags, like markup tags. When you've done that, then you CTRL+A and you remove all formatting, file-wide.

Now you have a perfectly clean file.

Fantastic, fantastic. I'll definitely have to toss this one in my back pocket.

I knew Toxaris's tools were already great, but that made it even better.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Interesting. My "Tag Formatting" button was hidden by default.

This is how I enabled it (in Microsoft Word 2016):

1. Press EPUBTools tab in the ribbon.

2. Press the Settings button.

3. In the settings window, scroll sideways to Configure Ribbon.

4. Uncheck the box for Additional tools > Tag formatting.

(It was the only one that was checked for me... no wonder I never saw it before!)



Fantastic, fantastic. I'll definitely have to toss this one in my back pocket.

I knew Toxaris's tools were already great, but that made it even better.

Try it. Honestly....it's fantastic. I know, I know, I've raved about Toxaris previously and ^, but until you've been stuck in the same boat as this OP and had to do this all manually, you won't appreciate this simple but brilliant plugin's capabilities.

I had a bookmaker here that insisted that her clip (a proprietary PERL clip) was better, yadda. Until she had a major hassle with a book and the italic cleanup took her forever. I took the same file, spent 10 minutes and handed it to her and she's been a Toxaris fan ever since.

Hitch

[BetterRed]

In the beginning, I recall trying to make use of Tag Formatting.

But I must have missed the line that said "…click Tag formatting again and it will restore all the inline italics, bold and underlines."

BR

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

In the beginning, I recall trying to make use of Tag Formatting.

But I must have missed the line that said "…click Tag formatting again and it will restore all the inline italics, bold and underlines."

BR

LOL. Well, yes, that could present a small hill to climb. Might want to try it that way.

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

But I must have missed the line that said "…click Tag formatting again and it will restore all the inline italics, bold and underlines."

Doesn't look like it's explained well (or at all?) in the docs either:

http://toxaris.nl/helpen/index.html

And honestly, this is the first I'm hearing about it.

But if Tag Formatting is as great as Hitch says it is, this should be one of those front-and-center features we should all be trumpeting.

Side Note: And speaking of my great buddy Toxaris... he hasn't been posting in a while. (Last login: August 2020.) Anyone know what's up?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans;4121270[B

Side Note:[/B] And speaking of my great buddy Toxaris... he hasn't been posting in a while. (Last login: August 2020.) Anyone know what's up?

I suggest you send Toxaris a PM. I do hope whatever the reason for his absence is nothing serious.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Hitch

LOL. Well, yes, that could present a small hill to climb. Might want to try it that way.

Hitch

You probably intuited it

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I suggest you send Toxaris a PM. I do hope whatever the reason for his absence is nothing serious.

Seconded - my hope is that he's won a major contract - e.g. the Notre-Dame restoration.

BR

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Doesn't look like it's explained well (or at all?) in the docs either:

http://toxaris.nl/helpen/index.html

And honestly, this is the first I'm hearing about it.

But if Tag Formatting is as great as Hitch says it is, this should be one of those front-and-center features we should all be trumpeting.

Side Note: And speaking of my great buddy Toxaris... he hasn't been posting in a while. (Last login: August 2020.) Anyone know what's up?

My intuition isn't that great. I worked with Toxaris, directly and commercially, outside of MR and we probably discussed it directly, that's all.

Yes, I hope he's all good too. I haven't emailed him in a while.

And this is a FANTASTIC feature of ePUBtools. It's saved me untold hours. I do actually yammer about it, on here, ya know. This ain't my first time saying "use ePUBTools." The only problem with it, is, for some reason, on my Word 365, Win10, it won't remain installed. It works fine on my Laptop version. Damned if I get it, but it's such a boon to use that I simply drop files over to my laptop, use eT there and then drop the cleaned file back to my desktop. Worth the aggro.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

Hi everyone! Yes, I hardly visit the site anymore, but I am very much alive. To be honest. I hardly create e-books nowadays and keep mostly to reading...

I can't recall when I built in the tag formatting, but it has been there for a long time, I actually think it was one of the first things I added. It is indeed as said, it tags the formatting after which you can use the 'clean formatting' option. Afterwards run the 'tag formatting' again and it will untag the formatting, restoring italic, bold, underline, whatever you selected.

It should provide you with a cleaned up file.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Hi everyone! Yes, I hardly visit the site anymore, but I am very much alive. To be honest. I hardly create e-books nowadays and keep mostly to reading...

I can't recall when I built in the tag formatting, but it has been there for a long time, I actually think it was one of the first things I added. It is indeed as said, it tags the formatting after which you can use the 'clean formatting' option. Afterwards run the 'tag formatting' again and it will untag the formatting, restoring italic, bold, underline, whatever you selected.

It should provide you with a cleaned up file.

It's been at least since 2013, which is when it went into the Hitch-Top-Secret-Weapons catalogue and has remained there ever since. :-)

Lovely to see you!

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Hitch

…
The only problem with it, is, for some reason, on my Word 365, Win10, it won't remain installed. It works fine on my Laptop version. Damned if I get it, but it's such a boon to use that I simply drop files over to my laptop, use eT there and then drop the cleaned file back to my desktop. Worth the aggro.

I had that problem for a while, but it 'self healed', possibly something MS did or one of my other add-ins did. Dialogue Checker is still intermittently obstreperous, less so if I terminate other programs like browsers and editors, one day I'll try it in Safe Mode.

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Hi everyone! Yes, I hardly visit the site anymore, but I am very much alive.

Excellent, good to know you're okay, I can take you off my "I wonder what happened to…" list.

Stay well everyone.

BR

[jmurphy]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

it tags the formatting after which you can use the 'clean formatting' option. Afterwards run the 'tag formatting' again and it will untag the formatting, restoring italic, bold, underline, whatever you selected.

On a fresh install of ePUBTools, Tag Formatting is hidden by default. You have to go into Settings|Configure Ribbon and in Additional Tools un-hide Tag Formatting. If there is ever a new version of the tools perhaps Tag Formatting could be visible by default.

Sorry, what do you mean by "use the 'clean formatting' option"? What is the actual name of the option in ePUBTools? Or do you mean a Word option? Sorry if this seems obvious...

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by jmurphy

On a fresh install of ePUBTools, Tag Formatting is hidden by default. You have to go into Settings|Configure Ribbon and in Additional Tools un-hide Tag Formatting. If there is ever a new version of the tools perhaps Tag Formatting could be visible by default.

Sorry, what do you mean by "use the 'clean formatting' option"? What is the actual name of the option in ePUBTools? Or do you mean a Word option? Sorry if this seems obvious...

Hi:

Either. There's a clear formatting icon, in ePUBT--I don't have it in front of me and I don't recall what it is, but I think it's an X, through some text perhaps? (Red, can you jump in here? I don't have my laptop handy with that on it). OR, once you select all the text, *after* you have tagged the formatting!!!!--just use CLEAR ALL in the Word Styles pane. At the very top. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

And never forget--always, always, always do this with a copy of the file, if you don't have a backup in cloud or other storage. I don't care if you're doing this the first time or the fifteen-hundredth, use a copy. Trust me, I'm the queen of unrecoverable screwups.

Hitch