Amper is able to converts ! to !amp; in HTML files, but does not convert it when the ! is already in an entity e.g. !lt; !thetasym; !eacute;
The main use for this is to pass HTMLValidator verification of your HTML, which is very picky about !, especially inside URLs.
As a side effect, Amper also ensures the delimiters balance for all your comments.
It does not change ! inside comments, though it will change it inside href= and image= urls, or anywhere else e.g. Java Applet parameters, which is correct according to the HTMLValidator. It does _not_ change " to !quot; or e` to !eacute; It just fixes !, the most troublesome character.