Could use a bit of help with regular expressions to edit books on conversion

[Flammy]

Ok so a whole bunch of PDFs I have have this nasty watermark which gets converted to text every time as exactly this:

<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>PDF Transform</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>PDF Transform</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>Y</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>Y</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>Y</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>er</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>Y</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>er</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>B</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>2</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>B</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>2</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>B</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>.0</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>B</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>.0</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>A</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>A</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>Click here to buy</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>Click here to buy</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>w</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>w</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>w</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>w</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>w .</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>w</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>A B B YY.com</b></a><br>
<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>.A B BYY.com</b></a><br>

Annoying, right?

I know I can remove most of it during a bulk conversion using these two:

<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>[a-zA-Z0-9]</b></a><br>

and

<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9]</b></a><br>

but the longer ones will obviously remain in there. While reading thru the "all about using regular expressions in calibre" it got over my head and if anyone can help me with a regular expression to remove all of that junk I'd really appreciate it.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Flammy

While reading thru the "all about using regular expressions in calibre" it got over my head and if anyone can help me with a regular expression to remove all of that junk I'd really appreciate it.

I'm not the person to help with this expression. However, I do have 7 simple rules that I use when I run across books like the one you describe.

1. Buy the book.
2. Don't use PDF as a source book for conversions.
3. Find a new source book in another format.
4. Don't use PDF as a source book for conversions.
5. Convert to ePub and use Sigil's find and replace to remove the offending junk.
6. Don't use PDF as a source book for conversions.
7. Buy the book.

You might find something in there that helps you out.


Good Luck.

[Serpentine]

Mostly, the post above, failing that :

<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy">.*?</a><br>

[JDK1962]

<a href="http://www.abbyy.com/buy"><b>[a-zA-Z0-9\. ]+</b></a><br>