diff --git a/secretary.py b/secretary.py
index 760be55..1d732d9 100644
--- a/secretary.py
+++ b/secretary.py
@@ -29,12 +29,13 @@ import re
 import sys
 import logging
 import zipfile
+import jinja2
 from os import path
 from mimetypes import guess_type, guess_extension
 from uuid import uuid4
 from xml.dom.minidom import parseString
 from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError, ErrorString
-from jinja2 import Environment, Undefined
+from jinja2 import Environment, Undefined, Markup
 
 try:
     if sys.version_info.major == 3:
@@ -135,7 +136,8 @@ class Renderer(object):
             self.environment = environment
         else:
             self.environment = Environment(undefined=UndefinedSilently,
-                                           autoescape=True)
+                                           autoescape=True,
+                                           finalize=self.finalize_value)
             # Register filters
             self.environment.filters['pad'] = pad_string
             self.environment.filters['markdown'] = self.markdown_filter
@@ -146,6 +148,13 @@ class Renderer(object):
 
         self._compile_tags_expressions()
 
+    @jinja2.evalcontextfilter
+    def finalize_value(self, value, *args):
+        """Escapes variables values."""
+        if isinstance(value, Markup):
+            return value
+
+        return Markup(self.get_escaped_var_value(value))
 
     def media_loader(self, callback):
         """This sets the the media loader. A user defined function which
@@ -401,7 +410,6 @@ class Renderer(object):
             # Finally, remove the placeholder
             placeholder_parent.removeChild(placeholder)
 
-
     def _unescape_entities(self, xml_text):
         """
         Unescape links and '&', '<', '"' and '>' within jinja
@@ -434,17 +442,16 @@ class Renderer(object):
         return xml_text
 
     @staticmethod
-    def _encode_escape_chars(xml_text):
+    def get_escaped_var_value(value):
         """
-        Replace line feed and/or tabs within text:span entities.
+        Encodes XML reserved chars in value (eg. &, <, >) and also replaces
+        the control chars \n and \t control chars to their ODF counterparts.
         """
-        find_pattern = r'(?is)<text:([\S]+?).*?>([^>]*?([\n\t])[^<]*?)</text:\1>'
-        for m in re.findall(find_pattern, xml_text):
-            replacement = m[1].replace('\n', '<text:line-break/>')
-            replacement = replacement.replace('\t', '<text:tab/>')
-            xml_text = xml_text.replace(m[1], replacement)
-
-        return xml_text
+        value = Markup.escape(value)
+        return (
+            value.replace('\n', Markup('<text:line-break/>'))
+                 .replace('\t', Markup('<text:tab/>'))
+        )
 
 
     def add_media_to_archive(self, media, mime, name=''):
@@ -568,7 +575,6 @@ class Renderer(object):
             )
 
             result = jinja_template.render(**kwargs)
-            result = self._encode_escape_chars(result)
 
             final_xml = parseString(result.encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
             if self.template_images:
diff --git a/test_secretary.py b/test_secretary.py
index 9000a0b..d3883e9 100644
--- a/test_secretary.py
+++ b/test_secretary.py
@@ -49,21 +49,6 @@ class RenderTestCase(TestCase):
         for test, expect in test_samples.items():
             assert self.engine._unescape_entities(test) == expect
 
-    def test__encode_escape_chars(self):
-        test_samples = {
-            '<text:a>\n</text:a>': '<text:a><text:line-break/></text:a>',
-            '<text:h>\n</text:h>': '<text:h><text:line-break/></text:h>',
-            '<text:p>\n</text:p>': '<text:p><text:line-break/></text:p>',
-            '<text:p>Hello\n</text:p>': '<text:p>Hello<text:line-break/></text:p>',
-            '<text:p>Hello\nWorld\n!</text:p>': '<text:p>Hello<text:line-break/>World<text:line-break/>!</text:p>',
-            '<text:ruby-base>\n</text:ruby-base>': '<text:ruby-base><text:line-break/></text:ruby-base>',
-            '<text:meta>\u0009</text:meta>': '<text:meta><text:tab/></text:meta>',
-            '<text:meta-field>\n</text:meta-field>': '<text:meta-field><text:line-break/></text:meta-field>',
-        }
-
-        for test, expect in test_samples.items():
-            assert self.engine._encode_escape_chars(test) == expect
-
     def _test_is_jinja_tag(self):
         assert self._is_jinja_tag('{{ foo }}')==True
         assert self._is_jinja_tag('{ foo }')==False
@@ -80,22 +65,22 @@ class RenderTestCase(TestCase):
         assert self.engine.create_text_span_node(self.document, 'text').toxml() == '<text:span>text</text:span>'
 
 
-class EncodeLFAndFWithinTextNamespace(TestCase):
-    """Test encoding of line feed and tab chars within text: namespace"""
+class EscapingVariablesValues(TestCase):
+    """
+        Test encoding of line feed and tab variables valuess
+    """
     def test_encode_linefeed_char(self):
-        xml = '<text:span>This\nLF</text:span>'
-        espected = '<text:span>This<text:line-break/>LF</text:span>'
-        assert (Renderer._encode_escape_chars(xml) == espected)
+        xml = 'This\nLF'
+        expected = 'This<text:line-break/>LF'
+        assert (Renderer.get_escaped_var_value(xml) == expected)
 
-    def test_encode_tab_char(self):
-        xml = '<text:span>This\tTab</text:span>'
-        espected = '<text:span>This<text:tab/>Tab</text:span>'
-        assert (Renderer._encode_escape_chars(xml) == espected)
+    def test_encode_linefeed_char(self):
+        xml = 'This\tTab char'
+        expected = 'This<text:tab/>Tab char'
+        assert (Renderer.get_escaped_var_value(xml) == expected)
 
-    def test_escape_elem_with_attributes(self):
-        """A bug in _encode_escape_chars was preventing it from escaping
-        LF and tabs inside text elements with tag attributes. See:
-        https://github.com/christopher-ramirez/secretary/issues/39"""
-        xml = '<text:span attr="value">This\nLF</text:span>'
-        espected = '<text:span attr="value">This<text:line-break/>LF</text:span>'
-        assert (Renderer._encode_escape_chars(xml) == espected)
+    def test_escape_xml_reserved_chars(self):
+        ''' Should also escape minor and mayor signs '''
+        xml = '1 is > than 0 & -1 is <'
+        expected = '1 is &gt; than 0 &amp; -1 is &lt;'
+        assert (Renderer.get_escaped_var_value(xml) == expected)