Inline code in org-mode

Solution 1:

You can enclose the text within = or ~ signs to have it typeset in monospaced font and export it verbatim (which means it is not processed for org-specific syntax):

This is =verbatim text= or ~code~.

You'll find all information about org-mode markup elements in the relevant section of the manual.

Solution 2:

While monospaced is good enough for most cases, inline code blocks have the form src_LANG[headers]{your code}. For example, src_xml[:exports code]{<tag>text</tag>}.

Edit: Code highlighting of inline code is certainly possible, albeit with patching org.el itself: The answer given here https://stackoverflow.com/a/20652913/594138 works as advertised, turning

- Inline code src_sh[:exports code]{echo -e "test"}

Into

in html-export. And the winning answer in this post, https://stackoverflow.com/a/28059832/594138, achieves the same without the need to patch org.el, but you will have to adapt it if you don't like the optics during editing.