What are the common pitfalls to avoid when transferring text content between PHP, HTML, and Flash files to ensure consistent display and formatting?

One common pitfall to avoid when transferring text content between PHP, HTML, and Flash files is not properly escaping special characters. To ensure consistent display and formatting, it is important to use functions like htmlspecialchars() in PHP to escape characters that could break the HTML structure or cause security vulnerabilities.

// Example of properly escaping text content in PHP before outputting it in HTML
$text = "<script>alert('Hello, world!');</script>";
echo htmlspecialchars($text);