A "trick" to figure out the word count of your description....

[ricarmic]

I "invented" this today, I suspect other tools will do the same thing but it works great for me...

I cut and paste the wording into a new outlook message and one of the tabs under "Review" is word count.....

As I (re)list items I'll keep the word counts under 800.

Having said this, what counts as under 800 characters, the visible characters or all the HTML stuff too??

Ie my last description was 600 characters in "text" mode, but if I changed to "HTML" mode the character count was over 1200. Hmm which one counts???

[pjcdn2005]

I think that it counts html but someone else should know for sure.

This character count link was posted on the forums on .com.

http://charactercounttool.com/

[ricarmic]

Hi Pj that looks good too!

However we'll need to know what counts either way, for example:

<table cellspacing="28" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top">
<center>
<h2>A nice item! </h2></center>

in HTML is

A nice item!

in real text.

How many characters does it count as?

[pjcdn2005]

hmmm....I thought that link counted the html but it only counts 1 character for line breaks which means it isn't counting html

[ricarmic]

Given my systems background, I'm thinking the commands inside the <> won't be counted by characters for the 800 limit, however the command may be counted as something. Hopefully someone knows!

[recped]

It's not quite a simple as you are making out. Well actually it CAN be that simple but doesn't need to be if you want to push the limits to the max.

Suggest you study the FAQ

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=faqs&faq=faq-vi-q09

As far as the character count, the HTML code itself doesn't count but line breaks = 50, word counts are pointless and if you do have descriptions more than 800 and want to keep them you can.

The 250/800 is for the description that eBay actually shows by default with the mobile app (some may remember seeing this tested last year), buyers can still click the description button to see the whole thing if they want to and know they can.

What is especially important is that you can have both a very long description and in addition specify the 800 characters eBay will display by using html div tags.

[pjcdn2005]

The 250/800 is for the description that eBay actually shows by default with the mobile app (some may remember seeing this tested last year), buyers can still click the description button to see the whole thing if they want to and know they can.

I noticed it a few times and it sometimes pulled out the oddest things in a description.

I wonder why they would count a break as 50 characters?

[recped]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The 250/800 is for the description that eBay actually shows by default with the mobile app (some may remember seeing this tested last year), buyers can still click the description button to see the whole thing if they want to and know they can.

I noticed it a few times and it sometimes pulled out the oddest things in a description.

I wonder why they would count a break as 50 characters?

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Probably because they are trying to fill a specific size of screen real estate and are assigning a minimum value of 50 to each line of the available space.

[momcqueen]

This will be interesting to implement, as a seller, to maintain as much control as possible over the process of selecting that text. My descriptions are very longwinded but I can always pick up a single paragraph that gets to the point of the matter fairly easily. That's not to say I'm going to revise my listings to all be shorter, just that I'm planning to pick my own text to show instead of allowing ebay to do it so, I hope, they offer a Pick Your Own 800 Characters for Dummies (like me) workshop in the near future. 

[ricarmic]

I've long been thinking hardly anyone reads descriptions anymore anyway. So it's a slow migration to the new short and sweet world!

Old way:

Prepare to have fun with these!

This collector goes through junk boxes, collections you name it! Generally he creates from them two different styles of lots, mixture/packet type lots and sales card type lots. This group is the mixture style. Please check my eBay store to see if I have any of his sales card type lots running/available too! 

Here is what you should find:

• A mixture type group of stamps
  • Generally these lots are mostly used, but MNH/MH is possible as well
• There will be duplication, sometimes significant, please check the pictures
• As with any mixed group, please, expect some mixed condition
• From time to time there may be the odd stamp from other country(s) in the mix by accident
• Please check the pictures 

Please note that the stamps you see in the pictures are what you will receive. These are pictures of the ACTUAL stamps in this lot!!!

I am a member of the APS, CSDA, RPSC, and BNAPS

New Way:

40 different better used stamps pulled from a collection

Condition looks pretty good but please expect some mixed condition

The pictures are the actual stamps in this lot

I am a member of the APS, CSDA, RPSC, and BNAPS

[recped]

It's actually pretty simple. You create your description as always and then add your selected/edited mobile description within a div tag. On the regular site your full description shows, on the mobile site the specified text will be used for the short description. Possibly a good idea to have a tagline included "for more details please click the description button below" or similar.

If you have HTML authoring capabilities, you can indicate which content eBay should use for the View Item summary by encapsulating desired content (up to 800 characters) in special HTML markup. A simple way to tag your content is to include the following HTML around the text you wish to include in the mobile item description:

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">This paragraph contains almost 800 characters of text to be displayed in the mobile item description. And the text in this paragraph through this sentence contains 250 characters, which is the amount we will display without any actions on your part. When you tag this paragraph with these simple HTML breaks, the content will be displayed to shoppers looking at your item. This will allow the shopper to see the key information you want to display, without them having to click through to the complete description. If your complete description is 800 characters or less and uses basic HTML we will display the entire description without any action by you—so the best practice is to keep it within 800 characters. If you have a long description, make it easy for your buyers by using this option. </span></div>

[xeposter]

Even though it is not made for counting characters, it does count them for you: http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/encryptor.htm. It counts all characters including HTML characters.

Alex

[recped]

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@x..e wrote:

Even though it is not made for counting characters, it does count them for you: http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/encryptor.htm. It counts all characters including HTML characters.

Alex

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So it's useless for this purpose!

[xeposter]

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@recped wrote:

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@x..e wrote:

Even though it is not made for counting characters, it does count them for you: http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/encryptor.htm. It counts all characters including HTML characters.

Alex

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So it's useless for this purpose!

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Useless? I said that is counts characters, didn't I?

Alex

[recped]

If it counts the HTML code then it's useless to determine the character count of your description!

[xeposter]

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@recped wrote:

If it counts the HTML code then it's useless to determine the character count of your description!

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If I understood all of the before posts, the members were looking for a counter that would count HTML. That is why I provided my link.

Alex

[ricarmic]

Hi XE I think the problem is that they count line breaks as 50 characters so just counting the characters doesn't work anyway as it won't know the rule of adding the 50 per "return".....