[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Alternatively, you can use Diap's Editing Toolbag plugin. One of its functions is will do exactly this type of replacement.

I second this. Depending on how clean the input is, this would be more robust than a Regex solution.

Here is an image showing you the specific settings you would use when using Diap's Editing Toolbag to go from "<i>Example</i>" to "<span class="italic">Example</span>":