Trying to use a regexp to manipulate HTML is notoriously difficult.

For example, it might look like you could key on the existence (or not) of the closing angle bracket after string in your example, but that would only hold true if the tag following string was on the same line .. if it were on the following line, you'd be cooked.

It seems like using the module HTML::Parser might be a better solution for what you are looking for. In your case, you would install a handler for text (that is, non-tags), catch the string you're after and bold just that string. You would pass everything else through untouched.

Hopefully more knowledgeable monks will chip in with more information -- I haven't used this module, just read about it.

--t. alex

"Of course, you realize that this means war." -- Bugs Bunny.