diff --git a/src/dialogxml/dialogs/dialog.cpp b/src/dialogxml/dialogs/dialog.cpp
index 1a461484..32cc99d5 100644
--- a/src/dialogxml/dialogs/dialog.cpp
+++ b/src/dialogxml/dialogs/dialog.cpp
@@ -1132,7 +1132,7 @@ bool cDialog::hasControl(std::string id) const {
 	return false;
 }
 
-const char*const xBadVal::CONTENT = "<content>";
+const char*const xBadVal::CONTENT = "$content$";
 
 cDialogIterator::cDialogIterator() : parent(nullptr) {}
 
diff --git a/src/dialogxml/widgets/control.cpp b/src/dialogxml/widgets/control.cpp
index c0244654..61df8750 100644
--- a/src/dialogxml/widgets/control.cpp
+++ b/src/dialogxml/widgets/control.cpp
@@ -443,7 +443,7 @@ std::string cControl::parse(ticpp::Element& who, std::string fname) {
 			nodeTag = node->Value();
 		if(type == TiXmlNode::COMMENT) continue;
 		else if(!parseContent(*node, foundNodes.count(nodeTag), tagName, fname, text)) {
-			std::string val = nodeTag.empty() ? nodeTag : xBadVal::CONTENT;
+			std::string val = nodeTag.empty() ? xBadVal::CONTENT : nodeTag;
 			throw xBadVal(tagName, xBadVal::CONTENT, val, node->Row(), node->Column(), fname);
 		}
 		foundNodes.insert(nodeTag);