ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
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If you decide that the 4600 items already loaded into the tool do not include "other" listings and only include listings where $5 postage is desired, these 3 wildcard filters can be used in the ActiveContentEditor to generate revised descriptions:
Find:
/(width\=\"\d{3}\")/
Replace:
width="100%"
Find:
/(width\:\d{3}pt)/
Replace:
width:100%; max-width:750px
Find:
$4
Replace:
$5
I've encoded the filters so that you don't have to look for specific numbers, as it seems each listing session generated a different width value. Instead, it will look for a 3-digit number as a width.
Also, you may want to keep a single space after both $ price values to avoid modifying the front end of a price that may be 2-digits, like $41 changing to $51; although I suspect you don't have a price like that in your descriptions.
Also be sure to checkmark the filter to remove the long runs of HardSpaces. Once the code is fixed, you won't need those and they impede viewing on a phone.
Since there are many avenues we can take, I just wanted to confuse you with some of the options. If you need clarification on any of this, I'll be happy to guide you on the chosen path.
I also want to remind you that the tool will make backups of your originals so that if something goes amiss, the whole job can be undone by uploading the backup batch to eBay. Be sure to download the backups (originals).
I can help with other issues, but it might be better to start a new topic for those.
Are you using a table to define all of your descriptions?
Here is an example from one of your listings, but I found others where the code varies a bit.
I broke the lines to more easily show the code:
<font style="font-family:Arial;" size="4"><div>
<table width="246" border="0"><colgroup><col width="246"></colgroup><tbody><tr>
<td style="height:13.25pt; width:185pt;" width="246">
<table width="246" border="0"><tbody><tr>
<td style="height:13.25pt; width:185pt;" width="246">
Savage Dragon 1/2 NM/M 9.8 Wizard 1997 Erik Larsen
<br>
<br>Pictures shown are the comic you will receive.
<br>
<br>More scans available by request.
<br><br>Combined shipping. $4 for the 1st comic and $0.50 each for up to 4 more comics
<br>
<br>All comics shipped securely in a cardboard mailer.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</div>
<font size="4"></font>
<font style="font-family:Arial;" size="4"></font>
</font>
Notice all the places where the width has been defined, over and over again. You would need to fix all of those.
That long line of non-breaking spaces ( ) is holding your description wider than the text (see the solid gray row below).
When trying to constrain the width of the description, while, at the same time, allowing it to reflow narrower to fit a mobile device, I would recommend the following code:
<div style="width:100%; max-width:750px">
...text goes here...
</div>
Your spreadsheet tool is creating table code when you copy/paste a section of the spreadsheet into eBay's description editor. So generally, if you use the same spreadsheet tool and the same browser, your code will always match across all your listings. If you use a different browser, or change the column widths, the code may be slightly different during each eBay editor process.
The bulk find/replace from $4 to $5 should work just fine.
The find/replace you are showing for the table will not affect the cells inside the table. Those inner cells contain their own dimensions, and those cell-level dimensions will have priority control. In fact, the CSS, or "width:" dimensions will trump the HTML "width=" dimensions. So you will want to change them all.
Also, the dimension attributes in the table and cells can be in a different order, so, in your case where there is a minimal amount of code to start with, it is better to choose the smallest amount of code to change.
Find
width="246"
Replace with
width="750"
Then run the process again and
Find
width:185pt
Replace with
width:564pt
While this addresses your question of how to bulk edit the width codes, it is not clear to me if this will accomplish what you intend. I don't see an issue with your recent magazine descriptions in Firefox, Edge, Brave, or Safari. In all four browsers on desktop, the description displays as wide as your row of non-breaking spaces and will not reflow for narrower browser widths (causing a horizontal scrollbar to appear).
If you have listings that don't include your run of non-breaking spaces, then the description will collapse to the dimensions you have set, but won't shrink further to wrap on a mobile device. If those are the listings you are trying to fix, I would recommend this approach:
Find
width="246"
Replace with
width="100%"
and then on the next run
Find
width:185pt
Replace with
width:100%; max-width:750px
Because this latter code is CSS ( width: ), it trumps the prior HTML dimensions ( width= ). It will set the width to full width, whether desktop or mobile, but in no case will the width extend beyond 750 px, which is a reasonable reading width on desktop. So that means your description will wrap as wide as a phone, when viewed on that device. But on desktop, it will be allowed to stretch as wide as 750 px.
I don't recommend making any revisions until we resolve what you are trying to fix (since I am not yet seeing the issue you are trying to resolve).
Do you have a screenshot or a sample listing that is not displaying improperly?
What browser are you using?
I have only been experimenting with a couple listings. Here are two that I replaced $4 with $5 and the description text narrowed:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224693543476
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224693543504
I have since ran your two suggested find and replace edits and it hasn't changed the width of text displayed
Thanks
Those two listings have a different set of numbers to change:
<div>
<table width="270" border="0">
<colgroup>
<col width="270">
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="height:12.5pt; width:203pt;" width="270">
<table width="270" border="0">
<colgroup>
<col width="270">
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="height:12.5pt; width:203pt;" width="270">
Darkstars 17 NM/M 9.8 DC 1994
Yes, those replacements are correct.
Did you test on the two listings you mentioned here?
If so, I don't see any modification to the attributes.
I'm not sure why the bulk editor can't do them. I know that the editor does have some issues with some tag attributes, but only if they are split.
Could the code that you pasted contain attributes like color coding?
If copy/pasting, paste the code into a plain text edit to strip off any hidden codes. Then pick up from there and paste into eBay's "find" screen. Or perhaps try typing them directly into eBay's "find" screen, rather than pasting them.
Do one pass and see if the the HTML in the listing has been changed.
Sorry you had to go through so much failed testing. It appears that this new version of find/replace is a complete flip of the prior version. The original worked with the HTML code, and sellers had to exactly match the underlying HTML. This new version does not see HTML at all, and any that is added as replacement text will appear as a text version of code in the listing.
I did not see any settings in the new tool to use HTML view on Find/Replace (while it does exist on "add to" beginning or end). Could you send our complaints to the owner of this tool?
I'm really disappointed in eBay's new tool. I do hope eBay will consider making it more accommodating to both those who need to work on HTML and those who want to ignore the underlying HTML.
You may need to switch to this tool for bulk edits to your HTML.
https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentEditor.htm
It has an extremely powerful find/replace and can perform up to 10 different finds in one pass.
I can write a filter for you to gather up even more finds in one pass.
The tool will download your existing listings and extract a copy of each description. The next screen allows you to select standard filters for removal and to enter your own filters for find/replace.
Each description will be run through the filters and a spreadsheet of repaired descriptions will be downloadable from the tool site that you can later upload to eBay via Seller Hub > Reports > Uploads.
@shipscript wrote:
Sorry you had to go through so much failed testing. It appears that this new version of find/replace is a complete flip of the prior version. The original worked with the HTML code, and sellers had to exactly match the underlying HTML. This new version does not see HTML at all, and any that is added as replacement text will appear as a text version of code in the listing.
I did not see any settings in the new tool to use HTML view on Find/Replace (while it does exist on "add to" beginning or end). Could you send our complaints to the owner of this tool?
Thanks for the feedback @shipscript, I'll be sure to get it passed on to the new listing tool team.
Thanks, this find/replace is found on the new version of BEAR (bulk edit and relist), or perhaps it is simply BulkSell.
