HTML uses < and > to mark tags, and & to start special character codes called entities. If you want to show <b> as text instead of treating it as a tag, you must write those characters differently. HTML Entities makes that text easy to copy.
Turn tags into plain text
Type <b>Hi & bye</b> in Text or HTML. Leave Decode instead of encode off. The Result should say:
<b>Hi & bye</b>
< means <, > means >, and & means &. In HTML source, that result displays the characters <b>Hi & bye</b> as text, rather than making Hi & bye bold. Use Copy if you need the encoded text.
Now turn on Decode instead of encode, replace the input with <b>Hi & bye</b>, and check that the result is <b>Hi & bye</b> again.
What this tool does not do
It converts text; it does not check whether an entire HTML document is safe to show to visitors. When adding untrusted text to a page, prefer your framework’s normal text rendering rather than inserting the result as raw HTML. If the output does not look right, check whether Decode instead of encode is on.
Where your input goes
Processing runs in your browser. The tool does not upload your input to ilham.dev.
Related guide
For more background, read Writing and Publishing Text for the Web.
Questions you might have
- Which characters actually need escaping?
- In HTML text content, & and <. Inside an attribute value, also the quote character you are using to delimit it. Escaping more than that is harmless but makes the source noisy.