Changing the way special characters display

[mmmwowmmm]

Is there some way to use javascript to change the way special characters are displayed in a text area? Here is the problem I'm having:

I have a form on my website for editing certain pages. Whenever a page is opened for editing, certain characters in the text area are displayed by special characters; for instance "<" is displayed as "&lt;".

Just to be clear, "<" is not *replaced* by "&lt;", but it is simply displayed that way. When the form is submitted, the file will contain "<".

I'm not sure where this problem is coming from, as I have other very similar forms on my website which do not behave this way. Anyone have any ideas?

[mmmwowmmm]

Nevermind, I have solved the problem.

[eelixduppy]

So what was the issue? ;)