diff --git a/resources/recipes/danas.recipe b/resources/recipes/danas.recipe
index 6d6042b5c9..3543acd684 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/danas.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/danas.recipe
@@ -27,10 +27,19 @@ class Danas(BasicNewsRecipe):
                                 @font-face {font-family: "sans1";src:url(res:///opt/sony/ebook/FONT/tt0003m_.ttf)}
                                 .article_description,body,.lokacija{font-family: Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans1,sans-serif}
                                 .nadNaslov,h1,.preamble{font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif1,serif}
-                                .antrfileText{border-left: 2px solid #999999; margin-left: 0.8em; padding-left: 1.2em;
-                                margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0} h2,.datum,.lokacija,.autor{font-size: small}
-                                .antrfileNaslov{border-left: 2px solid #999999; margin-left: 0.8em; padding-left: 1.2em;
-                                font-weight:bold; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0} img{margin-bottom: 0.8em}
+                                .antrfileText{border-left: 2px solid #999999; 
+                                              margin-left: 0.8em; 
+                                              padding-left: 1.2em; 
+                                              margin-bottom: 0; 
+                                              margin-top: 0} 
+                                h2,.datum,.lokacija,.autor{font-size: small}
+                                .antrfileNaslov{border-left: 2px solid #999999; 
+                                                margin-left: 0.8em; 
+                                                padding-left: 1.2em; 
+                                                font-weight:bold; 
+                                                margin-bottom: 0; 
+                                                margin-top: 0} 
+                                img{margin-bottom: 0.8em} 
                             """
 
     conversion_options = {
@@ -40,18 +49,7 @@ class Danas(BasicNewsRecipe):
                         , 'language'         : language
                         }
 
-    preprocess_regexps = [
-                           (re.compile(u'\u0110'), lambda match: u'\u00D0')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags".*?/>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'<st1:place.*?>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'</st1:place>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'<st1:city.*?>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'</st1:city>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'<st1:country-region.*?>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'</st1:country-region>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'<st1:state.*?>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                          ,(re.compile(r'</st1:state>',re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE), lambda match: r'')
-                         ]
+    preprocess_regexps = [(re.compile(u'\u0110'), lambda match: u'\u00D0')]
 
     keep_only_tags     = [dict(name='div', attrs={'id':'left'})]
     remove_tags = [
@@ -59,7 +57,7 @@ class Danas(BasicNewsRecipe):
                     ,dict(name='div', attrs={'id':'comments'})
                     ,dict(name=['object','link','iframe','meta'])
                   ]
-    remove_attributes = ['st']
+    remove_attributes = ['w:st','st']
 
     feeds          = [
                         (u'Politika'             , u'http://www.danas.rs/rss/rss.asp?column_id=27')
@@ -87,10 +85,13 @@ class Danas(BasicNewsRecipe):
                        ,(u'Zvaka u pepeljari'    , u'http://www.danas.rs/rss/rss.asp?column_id=56')
                        ,(u'Vostani Serbie'       , u'http://www.danas.rs/rss/rss.asp?column_id=57')
                        ,(u'Med&Jad-a'            , u'http://www.danas.rs/rss/rss.asp?column_id=58')
-                       ,(u'Svetlosti pozornice'  , u'http://www.danas.rs/rss/rss.asp?column_id=59')
+                       ,(u'Svetlosti pozornice'  , u'http://www.danas.rs/rss/rss.asp?column_id=59')                     
                      ]
 
     def preprocess_html(self, soup):
+        for tagn in ['st1:place','st1:city','st1:country-region','st1:state']:
+            for item in soup.body.findAll(tagn):
+                item.name='span'
         for item in soup.findAll(style=True):
             del item['style']
         for item in soup.findAll('a'):
@@ -98,7 +99,7 @@ class Danas(BasicNewsRecipe):
                item.extract()
         for item in soup.findAll('img'):
             if not item.has_key('alt'):
-               item['alt'] = 'image'
+               item['alt'] = 'image'    
         return soup
 
     def print_version(self, url):
diff --git a/resources/recipes/espn.recipe b/resources/recipes/espn.recipe
index 5d75c3977b..178dbf27a8 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/espn.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/espn.recipe
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ espn.com
 '''
 import re
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
+from calibre.ptempfile import TemporaryFile
 
 class ESPN(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
@@ -78,12 +79,19 @@ class ESPN(BasicNewsRecipe):
     def get_browser(self):
         br = BasicNewsRecipe.get_browser()
         br.set_handle_refresh(False)
-        if self.username is not None and self.password is not None:
-            br.open('http://espn.com')#('http://espn.go.com/#myespn')
-            br.select_form(nr=1)
-            br.form.find_control(name='username', type='text').value = self.username
-            br.form['password'] = self.password
-            br.submit()
+        url = ('https://r.espn.go.com/members/v3_1/login')
+        raw = br.open(url).read()
+        raw = re.sub(r'(?s)<form>.*?id="regsigninbtn".*?</form>', '', raw)
+        with TemporaryFile(suffix='.htm') as fname:
+            with open(fname, 'wb') as f:
+                f.write(raw)
+            br.open_local_file(fname)
+
+        br.form = br.forms().next()
+        br.form.find_control(name='username', type='text').value = self.username
+        br.form['password'] = self.password
+        br.submit().read()
+        br.open('http://espn.go.com').read()
         br.set_handle_refresh(True)
         return br
 
diff --git a/resources/recipes/taz.recipe b/resources/recipes/taz.recipe
index 45b414f3cd..93ce5fded0 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/taz.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/taz.recipe
@@ -8,8 +8,9 @@ __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext de'
 '''
 www.taz.de/digiabo
 '''
-import os, urllib2, zipfile, tempfile
+import os, urllib2, zipfile
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
+from calibre.ptempfile import PersistentTemporaryFile
 
 class TazDigiabo(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
@@ -26,38 +27,39 @@ class TazDigiabo(BasicNewsRecipe):
     }
 
     def build_index(self):
-        if self.username is not None and self.password is not None:
-            domain = "http://www.taz.de"
+        domain = "http://www.taz.de"
 
-            url = domain + "/epub/"
+        url = domain + "/epub/"
 
-            auth_handler = urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler()
-            auth_handler.add_password(realm='TAZ-ABO',
-                                      uri=url,
-                                      user=self.username,
-                                      passwd=self.password)
-            opener = urllib2.build_opener(auth_handler)
-            urllib2.install_opener(opener)
+        auth_handler = urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler()
+        auth_handler.add_password(realm='TAZ-ABO',
+                                    uri=url,
+                                    user=self.username,
+                                    passwd=self.password)
+        opener = urllib2.build_opener(auth_handler)
+        urllib2.install_opener(opener)
 
-            try:
-                f = urllib2.urlopen(url)
-            except urllib2.HTTPError:
-                self.report_progress(0,_('Can\'t login to download issue'))
-                raise ValueError('Failed to login, check your username and'
-                        ' password')
+        try:
+            f = urllib2.urlopen(url)
+        except urllib2.HTTPError:
+            self.report_progress(0,_('Can\'t login to download issue'))
+            raise ValueError('Failed to login, check your username and'
+                    ' password')
 
-            tmp = tempfile.TemporaryFile()
-            self.report_progress(0,_('downloading epub'))
-            tmp.write(f.read())
+        tmp = PersistentTemporaryFile(suffix='.epub')
+        self.report_progress(0,_('downloading epub'))
+        tmp.write(f.read())
+        tmp.close()
 
-            zfile = zipfile.ZipFile(tmp, 'r')
-            self.report_progress(0,_('extracting epub'))
+        zfile = zipfile.ZipFile(tmp.name, 'r')
+        self.report_progress(0,_('extracting epub'))
 
-            zfile.extractall(self.output_dir)
+        zfile.extractall(self.output_dir)
 
-            tmp.close()
-            index = os.path.join(self.output_dir, 'content.opf')
+        tmp.close()
+        index = os.path.join(self.output_dir, 'content.opf')
 
-            self.report_progress(1,_('epub downloaded and extracted'))
+        self.report_progress(1,_('epub downloaded and extracted'))
+
+        return index
 
-            return index
diff --git a/resources/recipes/taz_rss.recipe b/resources/recipes/taz_rss.recipe
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6520a23b63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/resources/recipes/taz_rss.recipe
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+__license__   = 'GPL v3'
+__copyright__ = '2010, Alexander Schremmer <alex@alexanderweb.de>'
+
+from calibre.resources.recipes import BasicNewsRecipe
+
+class TazRSSRecipe(BasicNewsRecipe):
+    title = u'Taz.de (die tageszeitung) RSS Feed - German'
+    __author__ = 'Alexander Schremmer'
+    language = 'de'
+    lang = 'de-DE'
+    oldest_article = 7
+    max_articles_per_feed = 100
+    publisher = 'taz Entwicklungs GmbH & Co. Medien KG'
+
+    conversion_options = {'publisher': publisher,
+                          'language': lang,
+                        }
+
+    feeds          = [(u'TAZ main feed', u'http://www.taz.de/rss.xml')]
+    keep_only_tags = [dict(name='div', attrs={'class': 'sect sect_article'})]
+    remove_tags_after = dict(name='div', attrs={'class': 'rack'})
+    remove_tags = [dict(name=['div'], attrs={'class': 'rack'}),
+		 dict(name=['div'], attrs={'class': 'artikelwerbung'}),
+		 dict(name=['ul'], attrs={'class': 'toolbar'}),]
diff --git a/src/calibre/customize/conversion.py b/src/calibre/customize/conversion.py
index 72c067747d..8c8ce8c686 100644
--- a/src/calibre/customize/conversion.py
+++ b/src/calibre/customize/conversion.py
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ class InputFormatPlugin(Plugin):
         '''
         raise NotImplementedError()
 
-    def preprocess_html(self, html):
+    def preprocess_html(self, opts, html):
         '''
         This method is called by the conversion pipeline on all HTML before it
         is parsed. It is meant to be used to do any required preprocessing on
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
index e72e15c3d9..03a0047927 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
@@ -144,7 +144,6 @@ class HTMLPreProcessor(object):
     # Fix pdftohtml markup
     PDFTOHTML  = [
                   # Fix umlauts
-                  # ¨
                   (re.compile(u'¨\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*a', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'ä'),
                   (re.compile(u'¨\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*A', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'Ä'),
                   (re.compile(u'¨\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*e', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'ë'),
@@ -399,7 +398,7 @@ class HTMLPreProcessor(object):
             html = unidecoder.decode(html)
 
         if self.plugin_preprocess:
-            html = self.input_plugin_preprocess(html)
+            html = self.input_plugin_preprocess(self.extra_opts, html)
 
         if getattr(self.extra_opts, 'smarten_punctuation', False):
             html = self.smarten_punctuation(html)
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py
index 3fe6ce0ed4..37fd169cb1 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ from calibre.utils.logging import default_log
 
 class PreProcessor(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, log=None, extra_opts=None):
+    def __init__(self, extra_opts=None, log=None):
         self.log = default_log if log is None else log
         self.html_preprocess_sections = 0
         self.found_indents = 0
@@ -77,6 +77,32 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
 
     def __call__(self, html):
         self.log("*********  Preprocessing HTML  *********")
+        ###### Check Markup ######
+        #
+        # some lit files don't have any <p> tags or equivalent (generally just plain text between
+        # <pre> tags), check and  mark up line endings if required before proceeding
+        if self.no_markup(html, 0.1):
+             self.log("not enough paragraph markers, adding now")
+             # check if content is in pre tags, use txt procesor to mark up if so
+             pre = re.compile(r'<pre>', re.IGNORECASE)
+             if len(pre.findall(html)) == 1:
+                 self.log("Running Text Processing")
+                 from calibre.ebooks.txt.processor import convert_basic, preserve_spaces, \
+                 separate_paragraphs_single_line
+                 outerhtml = re.compile(r'.*?(?<=<pre>)(?P<text>.*)(?=</pre>).*', re.IGNORECASE|re.DOTALL)
+                 html = outerhtml.sub('\g<text>', html)
+                 html = separate_paragraphs_single_line(html)
+                 html = preserve_spaces(html)
+                 html = convert_basic(html, epub_split_size_kb=0)
+             else:
+                 # Add markup naively
+                 # TODO - find out if there are cases where there are more than one <pre> tag or
+                 # other types of unmarked html and handle them in some better fashion
+                 add_markup = re.compile('(?<!>)(\n)')
+                 html = add_markup.sub('</p>\n<p>', html)
+
+        ###### Mark Indents/Cleanup ######
+        #
         # Replace series of non-breaking spaces with text-indent
         txtindent = re.compile(ur'<p(?P<formatting>[^>]*)>\s*(?P<span>(<span[^>]*>\s*)+)?\s*(\u00a0){2,}', re.IGNORECASE)
         html = txtindent.sub(self.insert_indent, html)
@@ -86,31 +112,27 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
         html = re.sub(ur'\u00a0', ' ', html)
         # Get rid of empty <o:p> tags to simplify other processing
         html = re.sub(ur'\s*<o:p>\s*</o:p>', ' ', html)
-        # Get rid of empty span tags
-        html = re.sub(r"\s*<span[^>]*>\s*</span>", " ", html)
+        # Get rid of empty span, bold, & italics tags
+        html = re.sub(r"\s*<span[^>]*>\s*(<span[^>]>\s*</span>){0,2}\s*</span>\s*", " ", html)
+        html = re.sub(r"\s*<[ibu]>\s*(<[ibu]>\s*</[ibu]>\s*){0,2}\s*</[ibu]>", " ", html)
+        html = re.sub(r"\s*<span[^>]*>\s*(<span[^>]>\s*</span>){0,2}\s*</span>\s*", " ", html)
 
         # If more than 40% of the lines are empty paragraphs then delete them to clean up spacing
         linereg = re.compile('(?<=<p).*?(?=</p>)', re.IGNORECASE|re.DOTALL)
-        blankreg = re.compile(r'\s*<p[^>]*>\s*(<(b|i|u)>)?\s*(</(b|i|u)>)?\s*</p>', re.IGNORECASE)
+        blankreg = re.compile(r'\s*(?P<openline><p[^>]*>)\s*(?P<closeline></p>)', re.IGNORECASE)
         #multi_blank = re.compile(r'(\s*<p[^>]*>\s*(<(b|i|u)>)?\s*(</(b|i|u)>)?\s*</p>){2,}', re.IGNORECASE)
         blanklines = blankreg.findall(html)
         lines = linereg.findall(html)
         if len(lines) > 1:
             self.log("There are " + str(len(blanklines)) + " blank lines. " + str(float(len(blanklines)) / float(len(lines))) + " percent blank")
-            if float(len(blanklines)) / float(len(lines)) > 0.40:
+            if float(len(blanklines)) / float(len(lines)) > 0.40 and getattr(self.extra_opts,
+            'remove_paragraph_spacing', False):
                 self.log("deleting blank lines")
                 html = blankreg.sub('', html)
         # Arrange line feeds and </p> tags so the line_length and no_markup functions work correctly
         html = re.sub(r"\s*</p>", "</p>\n", html)
         html = re.sub(r"\s*<p>\s*", "\n<p>", html)
-
-        # some lit files don't have any <p> tags or equivalent (generally just plain text between
-        # <pre> tags), check and  mark up line endings if required before proceeding
-        if self.no_markup(html, 0.1):
-             self.log("not enough paragraph markers, adding now")
-             add_markup = re.compile('(?<!>)(\n)')
-             html = add_markup.sub('</p>\n<p>', html)
-
+        #self.log("\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"+html+"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n")
         # detect chapters/sections to match xpath or splitting logic
         heading = re.compile('<h[1-3][^>]*>', re.IGNORECASE)
         self.html_preprocess_sections = len(heading.findall(html))
@@ -118,7 +140,7 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
         #
         # Start with most typical chapter headings, get more aggressive until one works
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
-            chapdetect = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*.?(Introduction|Synopsis|Acknowledgements|Chapter|Epilogue|Volume|Prologue|Book\s|Part\s|Dedication)\s*([\d\w-]+\:?\s*){0,8}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.IGNORECASE)
+            chapdetect = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*.?(Introduction|Synopsis|Acknowledgements|Chapter|Epilogue|Volume|Prologue|Book\s|Part\s|Dedication)\s*([\d\w-]+\:?\s*){0,8}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*\s*(\s*<p[^>]*>\s*</p>){0,2}\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.IGNORECASE|re.VERBOSE)
             html = chapdetect.sub(self.chapter_head, html)
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
             self.log("not enough chapters, only " + str(self.html_preprocess_sections) + ", trying numeric chapters")
@@ -127,10 +149,10 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
 
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
             self.log("not enough chapters, only " + str(self.html_preprocess_sections) + ", trying with uppercase words")
-            chapdetect2 = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*.?(([A-Z#-]+\s*){1,9})\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.UNICODE)
+            chapdetect2 = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*.?([A-Z#\-\s]+)\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.UNICODE)
             html = chapdetect2.sub(self.chapter_head, html)
 
-        # Unwrap lines
+        ###### Unwrap lines ######
         #
         self.log("Unwrapping Lines")
         # Some OCR sourced files have line breaks in the html using a combination of span & p tags
@@ -149,13 +171,13 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
             format = 'html'
 
         # Calculate Length
-        length = line_length('pdf', html, getattr(self.extra_opts,
+        length = line_length(format, html, getattr(self.extra_opts,
             'html_unwrap_factor', 0.4))
-        self.log("*** Median line length is " + str(length) + ",calculated with " + format + " format ***")
+        self.log("*** Median line length is " + str(length) + ", calculated with " + format + " format ***")
         #
         # Unwrap and/or delete soft-hyphens, hyphens
-        html = re.sub(u'­\s*(</span>\s*(</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>\s*)?<span[^>]*>|</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>)?\s*', '', html)
-        html = re.sub(u'(?<=[-–—])\s*(?=<)(</span>\s*(</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>\s*)?<span[^>]*>|</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>)?\s*(?=[[a-z\d])', '', html)
+        html = re.sub(u'\xad\s*(</span>\s*(</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>\s*)?<span[^>]*>|</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>)?\s*', '', html)
+        html = re.sub(u'(?<=[-\u2013\u2014])\s*(?=<)(</span>\s*(</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>\s*)?<span[^>]*>|</[iubp]>\s*<[iubp][^>]*>)?\s*(?=[[a-z\d])', '', html)
 
         # Unwrap lines using punctation and line length
         unwrap = re.compile(r"(?<=.{%i}([a-z,;):\IA]|(?<!\&\w{4});))\s*</(span|p|div)>\s*(</(p|span|div)>)?\s*(?P<up2threeblanks><(p|span|div)[^>]*>\s*(<(p|span|div)[^>]*>\s*</(span|p|div)>\s*)</(span|p|div)>\s*){0,3}\s*<(span|div|p)[^>]*>\s*(<(span|div|p)[^>]*>)?\s*" % length, re.UNICODE)
@@ -164,13 +186,15 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
         # If still no sections after unwrapping mark split points on lines with no punctuation
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
             self.log("Looking for more split points based on punctuation, currently have " + str(self.html_preprocess_sections))
-            #self.log(html)
             chapdetect3 = re.compile(r'<(?P<styles>(p|div)[^>]*)>\s*(?P<section>(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*.?([a-z#-*]+\s*){1,5}\s*\s*(</span>)?(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*</(p|div)>)', re.IGNORECASE)
             html = chapdetect3.sub(self.chapter_break, html)
         # search for places where a first or second level heading is immediately followed by another
         # top level heading.  demote the second heading to h3 to prevent splitting between chapter
         # headings and titles, images, etc
         doubleheading = re.compile(r'(?P<firsthead><h(1|2)[^>]*>.+?</h(1|2)>\s*(<(?!h\d)[^>]*>\s*)*)<h(1|2)(?P<secondhead>[^>]*>.+?)</h(1|2)>', re.IGNORECASE)
-        html = doubleheading.sub('\g<firsthead>'+'<h3'+'\g<secondhead>'+'</h3>', html)
+        html = doubleheading.sub('\g<firsthead>'+'\n<h3'+'\g<secondhead>'+'</h3>', html)
+
+        # put back non-breaking spaces in empty paragraphs to preserve original formatting
+        html = blankreg.sub('\n'+r'\g<openline>'+u'\u00a0'+r'\g<closeline>', html)
 
         return html
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/html/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/html/input.py
index 084d48e54b..603adadb53 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/html/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/html/input.py
@@ -490,7 +490,8 @@ class HTMLInput(InputFormatPlugin):
             return (None, None)
         return (None, raw)
 
-	def preprocess_html(self, html):
-        preprocessor = PreProcessor(log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
+    def preprocess_html(self, options, html):
+        self.options = options
+        preprocessor = PreProcessor(self.options, log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
         return preprocessor(html)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/lit/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/lit/input.py
index 65f5c607a2..46a5e75977 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/lit/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/lit/input.py
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ class LITInput(InputFormatPlugin):
                         pre.append(ne)
 
 
-	def preprocess_html(self, html):
-        preprocessor = PreProcessor(log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
+    def preprocess_html(self, options, html):
+        self.options = options
+        preprocessor = PreProcessor(self.options, log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
         return preprocessor(html)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/lrf/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/lrf/input.py
index c54f3b071f..70529c0a04 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/lrf/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/lrf/input.py
@@ -420,8 +420,9 @@ class LRFInput(InputFormatPlugin):
         styles.write()
         return os.path.abspath('content.opf')
 
-    def preprocess_html(self, html):
-        preprocessor = PreProcessor(log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
+    def preprocess_html(self, options, html):
+        self.options = options
+        preprocessor = PreProcessor(self.options, log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
         return preprocessor(html)
 
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/input.py
index b8dc7a9560..9ab7996a74 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/input.py
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@ class MOBIInput(InputFormatPlugin):
                 accelerators['pagebreaks'] = '//h:div[@class="mbp_pagebreak"]'
         return mr.created_opf_path
 
-    def preprocess_html(self, html):
+    def preprocess_html(self, options, html):
         # search for places where a first or second level heading is immediately followed by another
         # top level heading.  demote the second heading to h3 to prevent splitting between chapter
         # headings and titles, images, etc
         doubleheading = re.compile(r'(?P<firsthead><h(1|2)[^>]*>.+?</h(1|2)>\s*(<(?!h\d)[^>]*>\s*)*)<h(1|2)(?P<secondhead>[^>]*>.+?)</h(1|2)>', re.IGNORECASE)
-        html = doubleheading.sub('\g<firsthead>'+'<h3'+'\g<secondhead>'+'</h3>', html)
+        html = doubleheading.sub('\g<firsthead>'+'\n<h3'+'\g<secondhead>'+'</h3>', html)
         return html
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py
index 000c603c1c..078b30627f 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ class RTFInput(InputFormatPlugin):
             res = transform.tostring(result)
             res = res[:100].replace('xmlns:html', 'xmlns') + res[100:]
             if self.options.preprocess_html:
-                preprocessor = PreProcessor(log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
+                preprocessor = PreProcessor(self.options, log=getattr(self, 'log', None))
                 res = preprocessor(res)
             f.write(res)
         self.write_inline_css(inline_class)
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.py b/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.py
index 173c69910f..253686344a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ __copyright__ = '2008, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 from threading import Thread
 import os, re, shutil
 
-from PyQt4.Qt import SIGNAL, QDialog, QGridLayout
+from PyQt4.Qt import QDialog, QGridLayout
 from PyQt4 import QtGui
 
 from calibre.gui2.dialogs.metadata_bulk_ui import Ui_MetadataBulkDialog
@@ -136,12 +136,10 @@ class MetadataBulkDialog(QDialog, Ui_MetadataBulkDialog):
         self.series.editTextChanged.connect(self.series_changed)
         self.tag_editor_button.clicked.connect(self.tag_editor)
 
-# Haven't yet figured out how to hide a single tab
-#        if len(db.custom_column_label_map) == 0:
-#            self.central_widget.widget(1).setVisible(False)
-#        else:
-#            self.create_custom_column_editors()
-        self.create_custom_column_editors()
+        if len(db.custom_column_label_map) == 0:
+            self.central_widget.removeTab(1)
+        else:
+            self.create_custom_column_editors()
 
         self.prepare_search_and_replace()
         self.exec_()
@@ -201,21 +199,11 @@ class MetadataBulkDialog(QDialog, Ui_MetadataBulkDialog):
         self.s_r_obj = None
 
         self.replace_func.addItems(sorted(self.s_r_functions.keys()))
-        self.connect(self.search_field,
-                     SIGNAL('currentIndexChanged(const QString &)'),
-                     self.s_r_field_changed)
-        self.connect(self.replace_func,
-                     SIGNAL('currentIndexChanged(const QString &)'),
-                     self.s_r_paint_results)
-        self.connect(self.search_for,
-                     SIGNAL('editTextChanged(const QString &)'),
-                     self.s_r_paint_results)
-        self.connect(self.replace_with,
-                     SIGNAL('editTextChanged(const QString &)'),
-                     self.s_r_paint_results)
-        self.connect(self.test_text,
-                     SIGNAL('editTextChanged(const QString &)'),
-                     self.s_r_paint_results)
+        self.search_field.currentIndexChanged[str].connect(self.s_r_field_changed)
+        self.replace_func.currentIndexChanged[str].connect(self.s_r_paint_results)
+        self.search_for.editTextChanged[str].connect(self.s_r_paint_results)
+        self.replace_with.editTextChanged[str].connect(self.s_r_paint_results)
+        self.test_text.editTextChanged[str].connect(self.s_r_paint_results)
 
     def s_r_field_changed(self, txt):
         txt = unicode(txt)
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.ui b/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.ui
index f51b93cafa..04fb3d4602 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.ui
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/dialogs/metadata_bulk.ui
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
    <rect>
     <x>0</x>
     <y>0</y>
-    <width>526</width>
-    <height>499</height>
+    <width>572</width>
+    <height>554</height>
    </rect>
   </property>
   <property name="windowTitle">
@@ -200,14 +200,15 @@
          </item>
          <item row="6" column="2">
           <widget class="QCheckBox" name="remove_all_tags">
-           <property name="text">
-            <string>Remove all</string>
-           </property>
            <property name="toolTip">
             <string>Check this box to remove all tags from the books.</string>
            </property>
+           <property name="text">
+            <string>Remove all</string>
+           </property>
           </widget>
-         </item><item row="7" column="0">
+         </item>
+         <item row="7" column="0">
           <widget class="QLabel" name="label_7">
            <property name="text">
             <string>&amp;Series:</string>
@@ -303,7 +304,7 @@ Future conversion of these books will use the default settings.</string>
        </widget>
        <widget class="QWidget" name="tabWidgetPage3">
         <attribute name="title">
-         <string>&amp;Search and replace</string>
+         <string>&amp;Search and replace (experimental)</string>
         </attribute>
         <layout class="QGridLayout" name="gridLayout">
          <property name="sizeConstraint">
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/database2.py b/src/calibre/library/database2.py
index c2d727e3c2..eb6e8336f9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/database2.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/database2.py
@@ -143,6 +143,11 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase, SchemaUpgrade, CustomColumns):
         SchemaUpgrade.__init__(self)
         self.initialize_dynamic()
 
+    def get_property(self, idx, index_is_id=False, loc=-1):
+        row = self.data._data[idx] if index_is_id else self.data[idx]
+        if row is not None:
+            return row[loc]
+
     def initialize_dynamic(self):
         self.field_metadata = FieldMetadata() #Ensure we start with a clean copy
         self.prefs = DBPrefs(self)
@@ -324,19 +329,13 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase, SchemaUpgrade, CustomColumns):
         self.last_update_check = self.last_modified()
 
 
-        def get_property(idx, index_is_id=False, loc=-1):
-            row = self.data._data[idx] if index_is_id else self.data[idx]
-            if row is not None:
-                return row[loc]
-
         for prop in ('author_sort', 'authors', 'comment', 'comments', 'isbn',
                      'publisher', 'rating', 'series', 'series_index', 'tags',
                      'title', 'timestamp', 'uuid', 'pubdate', 'ondevice'):
-            setattr(self, prop, functools.partial(get_property,
+            setattr(self, prop, functools.partial(self.get_property,
                     loc=self.FIELD_MAP['comments' if prop == 'comment' else prop]))
-        setattr(self, 'title_sort', functools.partial(get_property,
+        setattr(self, 'title_sort', functools.partial(self.get_property,
                 loc=self.FIELD_MAP['sort']))
-        setattr(self, 'get_property', get_property)
 
     def initialize_database(self):
         metadata_sqlite = open(P('metadata_sqlite.sql'), 'rb').read()
@@ -440,7 +439,8 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase, SchemaUpgrade, CustomColumns):
                 if not f:
                     continue
                 stream = cStringIO.StringIO(f)
-                self.add_format(id, format, stream, index_is_id=True, path=tpath)
+                self.add_format(id, format, stream, index_is_id=True,
+                        path=tpath, notify=False)
         self.conn.execute('UPDATE books SET path=? WHERE id=?', (path, id))
         if commit:
             self.conn.commit()
diff --git a/src/calibre/manual/faq.rst b/src/calibre/manual/faq.rst
index b93444f4c3..781048666b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/manual/faq.rst
+++ b/src/calibre/manual/faq.rst
@@ -376,7 +376,9 @@ be printed to it. If the debug output contains a line that looks like::
 
 then the problem is probably a corrupted font cache. You can clear the cache by following these
 `instructions <http://www.macworld.com/article/139383/2009/03/fontcacheclear.html>`_. If that doesn't
-solve it, look for a corrupted font file on your system, in ~/Library/Fonts or the like.
+solve it, look for a corrupted font file on your system, in ~/Library/Fonts or the like. An easy way to
+check for corrupted fonts in OS X is to start the "Font Book" application, select all fonts and then in the File
+menu, choose "Validate fonts".
 
 My antivirus program claims |app| is a virus/trojan?
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py b/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py
index 32d9075465..9b9a34be7d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import os
 
 from calibre.customize.conversion import InputFormatPlugin, OptionRecommendation
 from calibre.constants import numeric_version
+from calibre import walk
 
 class RecipeDisabled(Exception):
     pass
@@ -111,6 +112,10 @@ class RecipeInput(InputFormatPlugin):
             if f.endswith('.opf'):
                 return os.path.abspath(f)
 
+        for f in walk('.'):
+            if f.endswith('.opf'):
+                return os.path.abspath(f)
+
     def postprocess_book(self, oeb, opts, log):
         if self.recipe_object is not None:
             self.recipe_object.postprocess_book(oeb, opts, log)