How to convert a series of lines into a working HTML list?

Question

Right now, this is a task I find a lot easier in something like gedit, because I can just replace "\n" (the line break) with "</li>\n<li>" and then I have a list.

One of the few little things I don't seem to be able to in Emacs quickly, but something I use a lot.

welldan97 · Answer 1 · 2014-09-24T00:06:48.710

10

Alternatively to query replace you can go with multiple-cursors:

enter image description here

Also consider using something like this:

(defun wrap-html-tag (tagName)
  "Add a tag to beginning and ending of current word or text selection."
  (interactive "sEnter tag name: ")
  (let (p1 p2 inputText)
    (if (use-region-p)
        (progn
          (setq p1 (region-beginning) )
          (setq p2 (region-end) )
          )
      (let ((bds (bounds-of-thing-at-point 'symbol)))
        (setq p1 (car bds) )
        (setq p2 (cdr bds) ) ) )

    (goto-char p2)
    (insert "</" tagName ">")
    (goto-char p1)
    (insert "<" tagName ">")
    ))

source

edited Sep 24 '14 at 00:06

answered Sep 23 '14 at 23:39

welldan97

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9

If you find yourself doing this sort of editing on a regular basis then I highly recommend the multiple-cursors package. Sometimes I wonder how I ever got along without it. – nispio Sep 24 '14 at 00:02
@welldan97 How did you create that GIF? Just curious… – Sep 24 '14 at 13:02
@lunaryorn, via [LICEcap](http://www.cockos.com/licecap) for OS X. I've heard Quicktime can be better, though I didn't try yet. – welldan97 Sep 24 '14 at 22:48

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 23 '14 at 23:18

8

You can use query-replace-regexp (C-M-%). Replace ^$.*$$ with <li>\1</li>.

answered Sep 23 '14 at 23:18

shosti

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score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 24 '14 at 12:56

7

The most direct way of doing this would be to

Mark the region of text lines to become a list
Press M-% (query-replace)
Type C-q C-j RET </li> C-q C-j <li> RET (C-q C-j inserts a quoted newline character)
Press ! to replace all occurrences

edited Sep 24 '14 at 12:56

mattl

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answered Sep 23 '14 at 23:23

Maciej Goszczycki

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i had to change around the opening and closing tags, but this works, and i think i can make myself remember C-q C-j. – mattl Sep 24 '14 at 05:55

artagnon · Answer 4 · 2014-09-23T23:25:17.580

1

For a full-featured solution, convert your text into an org-mode list and export to HTML. Prefix lines with '* ', active org-mode, and run org-html-export-to-html.

edited Sep 23 '14 at 23:25

answered Sep 23 '14 at 23:14

artagnon

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"You really shouldn't be generating HTML using text manipulations"--I can think of many reasons one might want to do that (you can't always control your input). – shosti Sep 23 '14 at 23:21
Prefixing input lines with an '* ' isn't asking too much, is it? – artagnon Sep 23 '14 at 23:23
I believe org-mode export is excellent for an automated solution, but I don't think discouraging basic text manipulation for html generation is helpful. – dgtized Sep 23 '14 at 23:24
If you want to add that as an answer (prefix all lines with '*', activate `org-mode`, then export to HTML) then that's fine, but I don't think it makes sense to scold people for wanting "quick-and-dirty" HTML generation. – shosti Sep 23 '14 at 23:25
Fair enough; I've reworded it. – artagnon Sep 23 '14 at 23:25

How to convert a series of lines into a working HTML list?

4 Answers4