<span>Surrounding text</span>

[foosion]

A book I'm reading puts span tags around all text. Most are

<p><span>Paragraph of text</span></p>

but occasionally they surround a single letter.

Is there any good reason to do this? For that matter, is there any good reason to delete them all (other than a bit of space saving)?

[Turtle91]

Some software programs are just weird…. But…. That particular issue is something that kobo does for their kepub books. They use that span for some of their device functionality.

The individual letters surrounded by a span are usually used to apply styling. Eg the first dropcap letter in the chapter.

Since you use a kobo I’d just leave them, they don’t really hurt anything.

[foosion]

This is in an original epub, not from kobo. Sounds like there's no good reason for it, but no harm either.

EDIT: A problem with strikethrough that seems to be a kobo issue, unless there's a general epub solution: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...4&postcount=44

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by foosion

A book I'm reading puts span tags around all text. Most are

<p><span>Paragraph of text</span></p>

but occasionally they surround a single letter.

Is there any good reason to do this? For that matter, is there any good reason to delete them all (other than a bit of space saving)?

I would delete all of the <span> as they have no need to be there.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would delete all of the <span> as they have no need to be there.

Is there a way to use Diaps editor plugin to edit all files? It only seems to edit the current file.

Otherwise regex find/replace would work. I wonder why they included all the <span>s, but that's probably a mystery.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by foosion

Is there a way to use Diaps editor plugin to edit all files? It only seems to edit the current file.

You need to add the icon to the tool bar, then click the arrow and deselect "Edit current file only"

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by foosion

Is there a way to use Diaps editor plugin to edit all files? It only seems to edit the current file.

Otherwise regex find/replace would work. I wonder why they included all the <span>s, but that's probably a mystery.

You can have Diaps edit all files in one go.

Find the icon (for diaps) in the toolbar and click the arrow on the right side. Then uncheck Edit current file only.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can have Diaps edit all files in one go.

Find the icon (for diaps) in the toolbar and click the arrow on the right side. Then uncheck Edit current file only.

There are arrows for convert CSS cm to em and for smarten punctuation, each leading to check for edit current file only. There is no such arrow for edit spans and divs, at least not on version 0.4.0 which is the version Calibre lists and is in the OP of the plugin's thread.

[Karellen]

In the editor, go to Edit>Preferences>Toolbars
Select "Book wide tools from third party plugins"
Move the Edit Spans Divs icon from the left panel to the right panel
Press ok

You need to make the change from the icon, not the menu.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by Karellen

In the editor, go to Edit>Preferences>Toolbars
Select "Book wide tools from third party plugins"
Move the Edit Spans Divs icon from the left panel to the right panel
Press ok

You need to make the change from the icon, not the menu.

Edit Spans Divs was already in the right panel, along with the other two. Nothing to change.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by foosion

This is in an original epub, not from kobo. Sounds like there's no good reason for it, but no harm either.

EDIT: A problem with strikethrough that seems to be a kobo issue, unless there's a general epub solution: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...4&postcount=44

Did you happen to use Calibre, or some other ebook management software, to send the ePub file to your kobo? That process may have "kobofied" it by adding the spans. If not, then it is most likely from whatever publishing/editing software that automatically added them. I agree that removing all most of them is fine, but you should probably protect your styling (single characters) before doing a complete sweep...

I'd change the individual letter spans to something else first, then get rid of the paragraph spans, then put the individual letter spans back to their original <span>.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Did you happen to use Calibre, or some other ebook management software, to send the ePub file to your kobo? That process may have "kobofied" it by adding the spans. If not, then it is most likely from whatever publishing/editing software that automatically added them. I agree that removing all most of them is fine, but you should probably protect your styling (single characters) before doing a complete sweep...

I'd change the individual letter spans to something else first, then get rid of the paragraph spans, then put the individual letter spans back to their original <span>.

Yes, started with a commercial epub, then Calibre transformed it to a kepub when sending my kobo. I would have thought major publishers would use good software, but experience has taught me otherwise.

I'd just remove the naked <spans>. Easy enough with regex find/replace in the editor.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by foosion

There are arrows for convert CSS cm to em and for smarten punctuation, each leading to check for edit current file only. There is no such arrow for edit spans and divs, at least not on version 0.4.0 which is the version Calibre lists and is in the OP of the plugin's thread.

You need the icon for Diaps Edition Toolbag to be in the toolbar so you can access the arrow on the right of the icon that you need to click. If it's not in the toolbar, you cannot change the settings. You cannot change the settings from the plugins menu.

I know @Karellen already posted this, but you seem to have either missed it or ignored it so I'll post again.

In the editor...

1. Go to Edit > Preferences >Toolbars
2. Select "Book wide tools from third party plugins"
3. Move the "Edit Spans Divs" icon from the left panel to the right panel
4. Press OK

You need to make the change from the icon, not the menu.

[foosion]

deleted

Regex works nicely.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by foosion

Is there a way to use Diaps editor plugin to edit all files? It only seems to edit the current file.

Otherwise regex find/replace would work. I wonder why they included all the <span>s, but that's probably a mystery.

In Sigil, You select all the files you want it applied to in the file browser.
In Calibre-Editor, there is a "pulldown" on the Icon to do Current File Only

In Sigil The plugin has a setting "Having Attribute" Naked is what you choose for <span> or <div> when you just want them gone.