diff --git a/addons/web_editor/static/src/js/backend.js b/addons/web_editor/static/src/js/backend.js
index 52ef2017a14..1516a912b61 100644
--- a/addons/web_editor/static/src/js/backend.js
+++ b/addons/web_editor/static/src/js/backend.js
@@ -307,7 +307,15 @@ var FieldTextHtml = widget.extend({
             return this.editor.save();
         } else if (this._dirty_flag && this.editor && this.editor.buildingBlock) {
             this.editor.buildingBlock.clean_for_save();
-            this.internal_set_value( this.$content.html() );
+
+            // escape text nodes for xml saving
+            var $escaped_el = this.$content.clone();
+            $escaped_el.find('*').addBack().not('script,style').contents().each(function(){
+                if(this.nodeType == 3) {
+                    this.nodeValue = _.escape(this.nodeValue);
+                }
+            });
+            this.internal_set_value( $escaped_el.html() );
         }
     },
     destroy: function () {