Hi,

I know this isn't strictly a Perl problem but it is in a Perl script
so I thought I would ask anyway.

On my site I have a simple flat file database. Each entry is 10 lines.
One line is the description of the item and contains some html tags to
format the text when it is displayed on my site. There are also some
that contain special characters such as " & $ ( ) etc.

The problem I have is this. I have a Perl script that allows me to
edit a database entry. It gives me a form with a text box for each of
the 10 lines. The "value" parameter of each text box is set to
whatever is currently shown in the database. The problem is that when
the text box for the description line encounters an entry containing
special characters or html tags it doesn't just show the entry "as-is"
from the database. Instead the special characters screw it up. For
instance entries containing a <br> tag jump outside the textbox with
part of the information.

So my question is this, is there a way to force the textbox to display
the information exactly the way it is supposed to be, html tags and all?

I have been hunting through my books and on the net but I don't even
know what to look for. If anyone can help I'd appreciate it very much!

Thanks in advance,
Andy Schafer