HTML Entity Converter
Securely escape or unescape HTML entities
Loading HTML Entity Converter...
⚙️ How It Works
Paste any text containing special characters into the input area. Choose 'Encode' to systematically convert risky characters to safe HTML entities, or 'Decode' to translate an entity-encoded string back into standard human-readable characters.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly are HTML entities?
HTML entities are specific character sequences starting with an ampersand (`&`) and ending with a semicolon (`;`). They represent reserved characters in HTML syntax. For instance, `<` becomes `<` and `&` becomes `&`.
Why do I need to escape HTML?
If you want to display code snippets or user-submitted text on a webpage, you must escape reserved characters like `<` and `>`. If left unescaped, the browser will attempt to mistakenly render them as actual HTML elements, potentially breaking your layout or causing security vulnerabilities (XSS).
Does it support extended named entities?
Yes. The decoder can handle common named entities (like `©` for the copyright symbol) as well as numeric character references.
Does the HTML Entity Converter work offline?
Yes, the HTML Entity Converter is fully functional offline. Because this tool runs entirely in your browser, no data is ever uploaded to external servers. Once the page is loaded, you can seamlessly continue using it without an active internet connection. You can also install Knicknaks as a Progressive Web App (PWA) for native-like offline access.