Here's another helpful utility, courtesy of John Robinson!
Use the spell check!
It will automatically convert the greater than or less than symbols into the html code as you described. You might need to add, then delete, spaces to control the process.
Just put the sample text into a posting window, with at least one spelling error, and request "spell" -- after double-checking for actual misspelled words, choose "apply corrections", and the former html will be changed into its ampersanded equivalents!
You don't have to post it, just copy and paste into your other application, but it's a great utility. I use it to format my poems for posting, when I want to add features to it, such as centering or bolding.
Very interesting, and no doubt VERY useful for one-off posts. I will give it a try.
But for lists like the Trad Ang Ping List where I might ping up to 9x a day, and there are a number of other operations to go through (such as preparing an entry to be recorded on the page in my tagline) it pays off to have a fully prepared page.