need insert html-tags into format marc-configuration

hi !
i fail repeatedly to "beautify" the presentation of marc-data
i discovered that <br> works fine, but if i e.g. want to use <em>blah 
%a</em> no matter what i try to escape, the / will never go "through" to 
final formatting
but maybe i am doing the wrong "escaping" :-)

btw. what formatting besides <br> do you suggest will be feasible not to 
disturb teh layout too much ?
btw. how to enforce nonproportional charset and/or create somthing like 
a table ?
regards
w.pichler