replace_patt = '++$1++' for k in keywords: patt = '[^|\s]{0}[\s|$]'.format(k) md = re.subn(patt, replace_patt, md) \+\+(.[^\+]+)\+\+ #! /bin/bash sourcefolder=${1%/} for book in $sourcefolder/book*; do echo "Reading ${book}" for htmlfile in $book/*.html; do echo "
" done; done; echo "Applying extra line breaks"