We're creating a system outputting some data to an XML schema. Some of the fields in this schema need their formatting preserved, as it will be parsed by the end system into potentially a Word doc layout. To do this we're using <![CDATA[Some formatted text]]> tags inside of the App.Config file, then putting that into an appropriate property field in a xsd.exe generated class from our schema. Ideally the formatting wouldn't be out problem, but unfortunately thats just how the system is going. The App.Config section looks as follows: <header> <![CDATA[Some sample formatted data]]> </header> The data assignment looks as follows: HeaderSection header = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("header") as HeaderSection; report.header = "<[CDATA[" + header.Header + "]]>"; Finally, the Xml output is handled as follows: xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(report)); fs = new FileStream (reportLocation, FileMode.Create); xs.Serialize(fs, report); fs.Flush(); fs.Close(); This should in theory produce in the final Xml a section that has information with CDATA tags around it. However, the angled brackets are being converted into &lt; and &gt; I've looked at ways of disabling Outout Escaping, but so far can only find references to XSLT sheets. I've also tried @"<[CDATA[" with the strings, but again no luck. Any help would be appreciated!