diff --git a/docxtpl/__init__.py b/docxtpl/__init__.py
index 7ee5f81..b91a670 100644
--- a/docxtpl/__init__.py
+++ b/docxtpl/__init__.py
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ class DocxTemplate(object):
             """Escape string values of the passed :dict: `d` in-place
             including nested dictionaries of any depth.
             """
-            for k, v in d.items():
+            for k, v in six.iteritems(d):
                 if isinstance(v, dict):
                     identity = id(v)
                     if identity not in identities:
diff --git a/tests/escape_auto.py b/tests/escape_auto.py
index d792fc2..ffa2b0a 100644
--- a/tests/escape_auto.py
+++ b/tests/escape_auto.py
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ from docxtpl import *
 tpl = DocxTemplate("test_files/escape_tpl_auto.docx")
 
 context = {'myvar': R('"less than" must be escaped : <, this can be done with RichText() or R()'),
-           'myescvar':'It can be escaped with a "|e" jinja filter in the template too : < ',
-           'nlnp' : R('Here is a multiple\nlines\nstring\aand some\aother\aparagraphs\aNOTE: the current character styling is removed'),
+           'myescvar': 'It can be escaped with a "|e" jinja filter in the template too : < ',
+           'nlnp': R('Here is a multiple\nlines\nstring\aand some\aother\aparagraphs\aNOTE: the current character styling is removed'),
            'mylisting': Listing('the listing\nwith\nsome\nlines\nand special chars : <>&'),
-           'autoescape': """These string should be auto escaped for an XML Word document which may contain <, >, &, ", and '."""
+           'autoescape': """<, >, &, ", and '."""
            }
 
 tpl.render(context, autoescape=True)
diff --git a/tests/test_files/escape_auto.docx b/tests/test_files/escape_auto.docx
index fc0e54c..c4ed5f0 100644
Binary files a/tests/test_files/escape_auto.docx and b/tests/test_files/escape_auto.docx differ
diff --git a/tests/test_files/escape_tpl_auto.docx b/tests/test_files/escape_tpl_auto.docx
index c6f7a6c..4d59e55 100644
Binary files a/tests/test_files/escape_tpl_auto.docx and b/tests/test_files/escape_tpl_auto.docx differ