diff --git a/include/svtools/HtmlWriter.hxx b/include/svtools/HtmlWriter.hxx
index 21ccad0cd96d..9fe66a7d9ad2 100644
--- a/include/svtools/HtmlWriter.hxx
+++ b/include/svtools/HtmlWriter.hxx
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ private:
 
     SvStream& mrStream;
 
-    bool mbElementOpen;
-    bool mbCharactersWritten;
+    bool mbOpeningTagOpen = false;
     bool mbPrettyPrint;
     /// XML namespace, in case of XHTML.
     OString maNamespace;
diff --git a/svtools/qa/unit/testHtmlWriter.cxx b/svtools/qa/unit/testHtmlWriter.cxx
index 19e5b6078947..3e7e10d34c12 100644
--- a/svtools/qa/unit/testHtmlWriter.cxx
+++ b/svtools/qa/unit/testHtmlWriter.cxx
@@ -175,10 +175,14 @@ CPPUNIT_TEST_FIXTURE(Test, testCharacters)
     aHtml.start("abc"_ostr);
     aHtml.characters("hello");
     aHtml.end();
+    aHtml.characters(" "); // Should not try to close a not opened tag
+    aHtml.start("abc"_ostr);
+    aHtml.characters("world"); // Should close opening tag
+    aHtml.end();
 
     OString aString = extractFromStream(aStream);
 
-    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL("<abc>hello</abc>"_ostr, aString);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL("<abc>hello</abc> <abc>world</abc>"_ostr, aString);
 }
 
 CPPUNIT_TEST_FIXTURE(Test, testExactElementEnd)
diff --git a/svtools/source/svhtml/HtmlWriter.cxx b/svtools/source/svhtml/HtmlWriter.cxx
index 3409461d363c..28a86bbce12a 100644
--- a/svtools/source/svhtml/HtmlWriter.cxx
+++ b/svtools/source/svhtml/HtmlWriter.cxx
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@
 
 HtmlWriter::HtmlWriter(SvStream& rStream, std::string_view rNamespace) :
     mrStream(rStream),
-    mbElementOpen(false),
-    mbCharactersWritten(false),
     mbPrettyPrint(true)
 {
     if (!rNamespace.empty())
@@ -36,7 +34,7 @@ void HtmlWriter::prettyPrint(bool b)
 
 void HtmlWriter::start(const OString& aElement)
 {
-    if (mbElementOpen)
+    if (mbOpeningTagOpen)
     {
         mrStream.WriteChar('>');
         if (mbPrettyPrint)
@@ -54,7 +52,7 @@ void HtmlWriter::start(const OString& aElement)
 
     mrStream.WriteChar('<');
     mrStream.WriteOString(Concat2View(maNamespace + aElement));
-    mbElementOpen = true;
+    mbOpeningTagOpen = true;
 }
 
 void HtmlWriter::single(const OString &aContent)
@@ -65,12 +63,12 @@ void HtmlWriter::single(const OString &aContent)
 
 void HtmlWriter::endAttribute()
 {
-    if (mbElementOpen)
+    if (mbOpeningTagOpen)
     {
         mrStream.WriteOString("/>");
         if (mbPrettyPrint)
             mrStream.WriteOString("\n");
-        mbElementOpen = false;
+        mbOpeningTagOpen = false;
     }
 }
 
@@ -92,11 +90,12 @@ bool HtmlWriter::end(const OString& aElement)
 
 void HtmlWriter::end()
 {
-    if (mbElementOpen && !mbCharactersWritten)
+    if (mbOpeningTagOpen)
     {
         mrStream.WriteOString("/>");
         if (mbPrettyPrint)
             mrStream.WriteOString("\n");
+        mbOpeningTagOpen = false;
     }
     else
     {
@@ -114,8 +113,6 @@ void HtmlWriter::end()
             mrStream.WriteOString("\n");
     }
     maElementStack.pop_back();
-    mbElementOpen = false;
-    mbCharactersWritten = false;
 }
 
 void HtmlWriter::writeAttribute(SvStream& rStream, std::string_view aAttribute, sal_Int32 aValue)
@@ -134,7 +131,7 @@ void HtmlWriter::writeAttribute(SvStream& rStream, std::string_view aAttribute,
 
 void HtmlWriter::attribute(std::string_view aAttribute, std::string_view aValue)
 {
-    if (mbElementOpen && !aAttribute.empty() && !aValue.empty())
+    if (mbOpeningTagOpen && !aAttribute.empty() && !aValue.empty())
     {
         mrStream.WriteChar(' ');
         writeAttribute(mrStream, aAttribute, aValue);
@@ -158,7 +155,7 @@ void HtmlWriter::attribute(std::string_view aAttribute, std::u16string_view aVal
 
 void HtmlWriter::attribute(std::string_view aAttribute)
 {
-    if (mbElementOpen && !aAttribute.empty())
+    if (mbOpeningTagOpen && !aAttribute.empty())
     {
         mrStream.WriteChar(' ');
         mrStream.WriteOString(aAttribute);
@@ -167,10 +164,12 @@ void HtmlWriter::attribute(std::string_view aAttribute)
 
 void HtmlWriter::characters(std::string_view rChars)
 {
-    if (!mbCharactersWritten)
+    if (mbOpeningTagOpen)
+    {
         mrStream.WriteOString(">");
+        mbOpeningTagOpen = false;
+    }
     mrStream.WriteOString(rChars);
-    mbCharactersWritten = true;
 }
 
 /* vim:set shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4 expandtab: */