Having trouble converting html to markdown txt

[bfollowell]

I have a file that isn't in the best of shape and I want to clean it up a little bit. I'm starting with an html file and I want to get it into epub for editing but I want to start by cleaning up a lot of the sloppy formatting. I've learned that one of the best ways to do this is to convert it to markdown text and then to epub.

Unfortunately, this isn't working this time around and I'm not certain why. The only thing making it into the markdown file is anything marked with an <h#> tag. All other text formatting (bold, italics, etc.) is being lost and I can't quite seem to figure out why.

Also, when I add the html file, it shows up in Calibre as a zip file. I can't say I've ever noticed that before so it may be normal behavior.

It's probably something extremely simple that I'm overlooking in a fit of stupidity but, when I started to get frustrated, I decided to come here and ask for advice. Does anyone here have any ideas what may be going on or what I may doing wrong? I'm using version 0.7.49.

Thanks.

- Byron

[kovidgoyal]

conversion to txt does not support CSS. Convert your epub to MOBI and then to txt.

[bfollowell]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

conversion to txt does not support CSS. Convert your epub to MOBI and then to txt.

I tried but it made no difference. The mobi shows all the proper text formatting but it all gets lost upon converting to markdown text.

I have the latest version of Calibre installed at home. I'll try again when I get to my home desktop and see what happens.

Also, I'm not really certain what you mean by "conversion to txt does not support CSS"?

I've converted to markdown text from an epub before and I'm pretty sure it used css. If the markdown txt conversion engine isn't compatible with css, what type of text formatting is it compatible with?

Thanks.

- Byron

[kovidgoyal]

The point is that when converting something to txt, calibre does not handle formatting specified as css, only formatting intrinsic to html tags, so for example <i>italics</i> will work but <span style="font-style:italic">italics</span> will not.

[bfollowell]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The point is that when converting something to txt, calibre does not handle formatting specified as css, only formatting intrinsic to html tags, so for example <i>italics</i> will work but <span style="font-style:italic">italics</span> will not.

Gotcha. I had a feeling that's what you meant but wanted to make certain.

Unfortunately this is how this particular file is setup and I know of no way to correct this short of going through the file manually, in which case I wouldn't need to do the markdown anyway because I'd correct the other sloppy formatting while I was in there. I'll attach a sample below.

I'll keep chugging away. Thanks much for the info.

- Byron

<p align=center style='text-align:center'><span class=italic1>IN TRIBUTE</span></p>

<p align=center style='text-align:center'><span class=italic1>Billy Wellington</span></p>

<p align=center style='text-align:center'><span class=italic1>(March 12,
1943–October 29, 2007)</span></p>

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

Also, when I add the html file, it shows up in Calibre as a zip file. I can't say I've ever noticed that before so it may be normal behavior.

When adding HTML files to Calibre, it will walk through the file and gather everything it links to that is present as a local copy into a ZIP file.

[user_none]

If your document uses images or links be sure to use the keep images and links options. Also, in the case of images I would highly recommend using Textile instead of Markdown. Currently Markdown output has issues with writing images reference in the output.

[bfollowell]

Well, this one was much easier than I thought it would be. I'll have to make sure to add this one to my really big book of cool techniques.

I did a basic conversion from html to epub. Luckily for me, every single occurrence of italics was setup using <span class="italic">. This was easy to change using search/replace and replace all of these occurrences with <i>. All the corresponding </span> tags were automatically changed to </i>. From there I was able to do the txt markdown conversion and everything went without a hitch.

Thanks guys.

- Byron