Is there any fast way to update text alignment for ALL product descriptions???

[kuroi]

I started to think about how to construct a script and realised that there is a much easier way to correct this.

Step 1: Do a complete backup of your database by your normal method

Step 2: use phpMyAdmin to export your product_description table only to a file, making sure that you tick the "add drop table" and "add of not exists" boxes

Step 3: open the resulting file in a text editor and use the editor's search & replace facility to replace all instances of <div style="text-align: center;"> with <div class="description">

Step 4: re-import the table via phpMyAdmin

Step 5: add .description {text-align:left} to your stylesheet

[Danielle]

GENIUS! You are a genius! It worked beautifully, thank you!

[kuroi]

I'm glad that worked for you. However this was the quick and dirty fix which still leaves you having to add <div class="description"> and a </div> to the product description for each new product.

Now that you've gotten the hang of this approach, you might wish to consider stripping these tags out of your database completely as you can easily attach the CSS styling you want for the description to the #productDescription ID that Zen Cart already inserts for you.

I didn't suggest this originally because of the added complication of also striping out the </div> tags but upon reflection I don't think that would be any more difficult than what you've already done and I should have suggested it before.

[Danielle]

In new products that I add, wouldn't I just choose the alignment option that I want in the HTML editor?

If that won't work, what you're basically saying is to go into that same table and remove every instance of <div class="description"> as well as </div>? I'm not sure how well it will work for the </div>, I wonder if that tag is used anywhere else in the product description besides just the alignment?

[kuroi]

Ahh. That's how this inline styling got into your database. Yes it will work, but each time you hit a function like that in the HTML editor you are inserting unnecessary and difficult to change code into your database for each individual product and re-creating the problem that you started with. It's much better to use the CSS IDs and classes that Zen Cart's php gives you and control the look of your product layouts from a single place in the stylesheet.

The </div> is the closing tag for the <div class="description"> tag. They operate as a pair and must be there or not together. If you took out the <div class="description"> but left the </div>, the latter would close an earlier FIV with potentially catastrophic consequences.

[Danielle]

Alrighty, I've stripped all the div tags and justified the products description using the stylesheet. Thanks SO much for all your help

In case anyone else is trying this, here is what I added to my stylesheet after I'd stripped all the div tags out:

#productDescription {text-align:justify;}

[kuroi]

Way to go, Danielle. So glad you bit the bullet and this will not only make it easier to change them again should you wish in future, but also eliminate the risk of forgetting to hit the justify key when entering a product description.