Over the past year or so, I've had about 3,000 books open in the editor - anything from a quick fix to major surgery. If I've learned anything, it's that no matter how I try to automate or streamline some function, the next book breaks the mould and is totally screwed up by whatever I thought I had working so well. The variation in ebook coding is so vast it is just amazing. It keeps the hobby interesting!
I have come to agree about not converting most of the time. I'm so used to the editor it is just easier. And if I type in find <div.*?>, replace with nothing, and hit "replace all", I know I can backtrack if I have to.
But I keep finding old short stories from early mystery and sci-fi magazines that have all in-line styling and no CSS files--the only way I've found to deal with those is to convert, as it gets rid of the in-line stuff and creates a CSS file. The originals can be so dense with code it's migraine time to try and read it. No idea how else to do that.
This thread is amazing, it is like a history of just about everything I've bumped into and learned or tried over the past year. You guys are wonderful.