that works for & but it won't work for <,>,',"

regex are:

$text =~ s/&(?!amp|quot|apos|lt|gt)/!38/g;
$text =~ s/"(?!amp|quot|apos|lt|gt)/!34/g;
$text =~ s/<(?!amp|quot|apos|lt|gt)/!40/g;
$text =~ s/>(?!amp|quot|apos|lt|gt)/!41/g;
$text =~ s/'(?!amp|quot|apos|lt|gt)/!39/g;
[download]

when i run that on my xml i get:

!40?xml version=!341.0!34 encoding=!34UTF-8!34?!41
!40TRANSACTION!41
    !40FIELDS!41
        !40FIELD KEY=!34user!34!41name!40/FIELD!41
        !40FIELD KEY=!34password!34!41pass!38word!40/FIELD!41
        !40FIELD KEY=!34operation_type!34!41!40do_what!41!40/FIELD!41
     !40/FIELDS!41
!40/TRANSACTION!41
[download]

so i am still in the same spot i need to be able to only manipulate the data in between > <

thanks again for your help