Description format problem

[sardonicus001]

For years I have been selling records and CDs on eBay. When filling in the Item Description section I copy a brief description of the artist and or record followed by a listing of the tracks on the record which I copy/paste from other sites. This has worked perfectly for five years. This morning I wnt though this process, only to find that everything in my Item Description appeared as one solid block. After several attempts I have not been able to have the various components within the section appear separately and formatted in the way I want. Has something changed or is there a simple solution?

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

The format for the tracklistings looks ok on the ones that display it, but I can't see any artist descriptions in the ones I looked at and the Mike Oldfield (Man on the Rocks) CD is completely blank in the description field.

It would probably be better (though obviously not faster) to stop C&P-ing from that site as when you do it directly, you also copy the HTML that comes with it, making all of the artist names linked to their profiles over there. Since they have their own marketplace, such links are pretty much a no-no. 

I used to copy the tracklistings, paste it to notepad, then copy from notepad and paste it to the listing, as that will just C&P the text. You have to tweak the formatting a bit, so I usually only did it for various artist releases (in the end it was easier for most releases to just type out the tracklisting myself, or find a site that listed them as text only. Wikipedia is usually a better site to copy from, as at least they don't sell products there. eg here's a link to the tracklisting for the Mike Oldfield CD on Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_the_Rocks#Track_listing

[sardonicus001 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for that. I have been cop/pasting track listings fro a particular site for years without a problem. I would hate to have to type in track listings as I list some 80 otems on my two sites each month. I will have to look at my existing listings to see which ones haven't copied properly. Incidentally I often copy track listings from Wikipedia and other sites when they are suitable.

[sardonicus001]

Further to the above. I have revised the Mike Oldfield CD by deleting the item description an substituting information exclusively from Wikipedia. Whilst the item description appears in the preview, it is not there when I open the item in All Selling. I have tried this several times without success. I'll have another look in the morning.

[sardonicus001]

I checked the Mike Oldfield CD and found that it now contains the item description that was missing last night. A miracle?

[jfmgray]

There is still a hyperlink on the last track of the Oldfield tracklist which takes you to another site - you should convert this to plain text by removing the hyperlink.  

As previously stated, you should paste your tracklists and any other text as plain text if copying from another site.  I think eBay's listing tool has an option to "paste as plain text" as does other listing programs like Auctiva if you are using them.  I actually now use a media player/copier software which has a great tracklist lookup program which is plain text and is easily copied and pasted into a listing.  It even scans the disk for tracking errors.  Or you can enter the UC number when listing and eBay will provide you the tracklist (albeit you need to double check for accuracy).

[teacosytart]

I am having issues when I type in the description box, spacing won't work and then it jumps from one line to another. Is anyone else having these problems?

[tazzieterror]

No such issue with me here. Because it's browser based, try logging out, clearing your cookies/cache, and restarting browser and/or computer/device.

Also, you've resurrected a topic that's been inactive for nearly three years - it's better to simply start a new one than add to one that hasn't seen any posts for an extended period.