It think he's saying it should look like this: # File: masseditor.py
import re import os import time p1= re.compile('(href=|HREF=)+(.*)(#)+(.*)(\w\'\?-<:)+(.*)(">)+') p2= re.compile('(name=")+(.*)(\w\'\?-<:)+(.*)(">)+') p100= re.compile('(a name=)+(.*)(-)+(.*)(></a>)+') q1= r"\1\2\3\4_\6\7" q2= r"\1\2_\4\5" def massreplace(): editfile = open("C:\Program Files\Credit Risk Management\Masseditor \editfile.txt") filestring = editfile.read() filelist = filestring.splitlines() for i in range(len(filelist)): source = open(filelist[i]) starttext = source.read() for i in range (13): interimtext = p1.sub(q1, starttext) interimtext= p2.sub(q2, interimtext) interimtext= p100.sub(q2, interimtext) source.close() source = open(filelist[i],"w") source.write(finaltext) source.close() massreplace() I'll try that and see how it works... -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list