Convert, strip or encode html characters (<,>,", etc.) to put in a form.

Hi, I'm creating a page where the user can place images in a <div> by using the drag & drop and resizable plugins.

Everything works fine, but I'd like to save the generated css (position, size, etc) in a form to post it in another page.

The only solution I see is to clone the div in a textarea or an hidden input, but I don't know how to change the html characters (<,>,", etc.).