ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Not to worry.
You should be able to repair your listings in bulk with eBay's tool, but the edit will be limited to 1000 characters per revision.
Edit listings in bulk-find and replace
Thankfully, since the block of text was bulk added, the string should be identical in all the listings. (Sometimes, code added by different browsers at different times is not always identical, and can make find/replace a bit more troublesome). Open one of your listings in HTML view and find a section that is under 1000 characters.
This is what I found (586 characters of underlying code):
<br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">For more items and my current Feedback score(over 950), and length of time being a eBay seller, since Aug 1997, see my two other eBay Stores,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomii">Pop Culture Heaven Com II</a>&nbsp;and,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomiii">Pop Culture Heaven Com III(100's more CD's here) </a>&nbsp;
And this would be the HTML replacement:
<br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">For more items and my current Feedback score(over 950), and length of time being a eBay seller, since Aug 1997, see my two other eBay Stores, <a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomii">Pop Culture Heaven Com II</a> and, <a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomiii">Pop Culture Heaven Com III(100's more CD's here) </a>
Find/Replace doesn't have a Standard view or HTML view. Both the "find" and the "replace" are assumed to be raw code (HTML).
@tkmops wrote:I pick two of my active listings, then 'Edit', then 'Edit Selected'. In the bulk editing tool, I click the two listings, then 'Edit fields', then 'item description', then 'edit listings in bulk-find and replace', then paste the above HTML into the 'Find' box, and leave the 'Replace' box empty. Then 'submit changes', and 'confirm and submit'.
Your process will correctly get to this screen, but the code you want to find in step 2 in the image below is not entered correctly.
eBay will only find an EXACT match of what you have entered (although upper/lower case differences will not matter). eBay also fails to split some parts of link code (but that is not your issue). If there are special characters, like hard spaces or hidden characters, those must be matched exactly.
Remember that eBay's find/replace tool looks at the HTML code, not at the rendered code that you would see in Standard view or on the face of your listing. So you must feed the tool EXACTLY the underlying HTML of the HTML that was mistakenly posted (which is going to look really messy because it is HTML of HTML — or double encoded) , and then replace with the HTML that you originally intended for the HTML view of eBay's editor. eBay's find/replace does not have a rendered Standard view — only HTML — so you still need to replace with HTML code.
You are allowed to leave the "replace with" box empty, but I think you will actually want to fix what was intended, so that is what I will instruct here. You'll put the messy code in the first box and the HTML in the second box.
Please look at the first of the two code boxes I posted. That is the type of code that exists in the HTML view of your listings and that is what must be replaced, not the normal looking HTML in your subsequent post.
It looks like the codes that I have selected for Find and for Replace almost match what you are trying to find and replace. So I have made a small addition and reposted below. When using eBay's bulk find/replace, which you have correctly described, use my code below, not yours.
This double-encoded (escaped) HTML is what needs to be fixed (609 characters of underlying code):
Find this:
<br></font><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">For more items and my current Feedback score(over 950), and length of time being a eBay seller, since Aug 1997, see my two other eBay Stores,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomii">Pop Culture Heaven Com II</a>&nbsp;and,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomiii">Pop Culture Heaven Com III(100's more CD's here) </a>&nbsp;
And this would be the HTML replacement:
<br></font><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">For more items and my current Feedback score(over 950), and length of time being a eBay seller, since Aug 1997, see my two other eBay Stores, <a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomii">Pop Culture Heaven Com II</a> and, <a href="https://www.ebay.com/str/popcultureheavencomiii">Pop Culture Heaven Com III(100's more CD's here) </a>
Find/Replace doesn't have a Standard view or HTML view. Both the "find" and the "replace" are assumed to be raw code (HTML).
@tkmops wrote:
...I tried using your code, and it worked!But I'm so confused, why does the 'Find' box want this:
<br></font><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br>...when my HTML is this:
<br></font><br></div><div id="ds_div" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br>...
When HTML is added to a webpage, you will see the pretty rendered results (no codes). But if you want to display the HTML code, instead of rendering it, then it must be escaped so that it won't render and will show the code instead. Since your HTML code is visible in your listing, it had to be escape-encoded to display all the brackets in the rendered page.
This is italic.
But the HTML code to display italic looks like this:
This is <i>italic</i>
The code to display the above HTML code looks like this:
This is <i>italic</i>
So, when you entered HTML code into the Standard view, eBay's editor assumed you wanted to display the code and brackets, and the underlying HTML view was coded like the third example. The actual underlying code is what eBay's Find/Replace works with. I had to view the source code of your listing to find the exact coding that had to be matched, and the third example is what I saw and copied.
Two questions:1) in the future, if I need to fix my HTML, how do I convert the HTML that I have into the HTML that the 'Find' box wants?
2) I noticed that the options of adding 'to the beginning' and 'the end' of listings is no longer there...just add to item description. Is there a way of moving what I just added(to the end of the listing) to the top of the listing(where people will more likely see it?
1) Edit a listing to open the HTML view of the description. Find the section you want to change. That will be the code to copy and paste into the "Find" box.
OR, go to your listing and highlight the section you want to change. Then use your browser's option to view the selected source (on the right-click button in my Firefox browser). The highlighted source code should appear in a new window. You can test viewing the selected source on this post if you have that browser option.
2) eBay only has the option to append to a listing. There is no prepend option.
However, I do have a tool that will handle more complex bulk editing tasks. It can append or prepend, or can delete from one marker to the next, or can work with a complex RegEx search phrase if there are variations in the phrase, and does not have a 1000-character limit.
So far, you haven't needed this tool.
https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentEditor.htm
HTML is the underlying code used to display content on a web page, and there is normally no further underlying code. Any further underlying code is only necessary if the HTML itself is to be displayed on a web page, rather than rendering on a web page. This is referred to as "escaping" the HTML code, and code can be escaped recursively as deeply as one wants to go. Thus, the third sample I posted will have its own underlying code (yet a fourth version) to display that third sample on this web page.
The bulk editor screen has changed, so I am adding new screenshots to show the new bulk editing tool.
And here is a composite exposing the details of all the available options.
 
@eec-inc wrote:Any way to make this description for each item i list to come up automatically?
If you want to replace existing descriptions with this content, or if you want to append this content to existing listings, eBay's bulk editing tool will allow either scenario.
If you are asking how to add a boilerplate to new listings, that is a different topic and I would recommend starting a new thread. I will be happy to respond. Otherwise, if I have misunderstood, please elaborate on the situation.
