diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/base_data.xml b/openerp/addons/base/base_data.xml
index 4c429fe56ff..943ae73435d 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/base_data.xml
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/base_data.xml
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
             <field name="company_id" ref="main_company"/>
             <field name="company_ids" eval="[(4, ref('main_company'))]"/>
             <field name="menu_id" ref="action_menu_admin"/>
-            <field name="signature">Administrator</field>
+            <field name="signature">--\nAdministrator</field>
         </record>
 
         <record id="main_partner" model="res.partner">
diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/base_demo.xml b/openerp/addons/base/base_demo.xml
index ce675ebb99e..e1ef2009f71 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/base_demo.xml
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/base_demo.xml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
             <field name="partner_id" ref="base.partner_demo"/>
             <field name="login">demo</field>
             <field name="password">demo</field>
-            <field name="signature">Mr Demo</field>
+            <field name="signature">--\nMr Demo</field>
             <field name="company_id" ref="main_company"/>
             <field name="groups_id" eval="[(6,0,[ref('base.group_user')])]"/>
         </record>
diff --git a/openerp/tests/test_mail.py b/openerp/tests/test_mail.py
index ab82fc39caf..5a0c062b3a0 100755
--- a/openerp/tests/test_mail.py
+++ b/openerp/tests/test_mail.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 ##############################################################################
 
 import unittest2
-from openerp.tools.mail import html_sanitize, html_email_clean, append_content_to_html
+from openerp.tools.mail import html_sanitize, html_email_clean, append_content_to_html, text2html
 
 test_case = """
 <font size="2" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: monospace; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; ">test1</font>
@@ -189,5 +189,17 @@ class TestCleaner(unittest2.TestCase):
         self.assertNotIn(new_html, 'Bert Tartopoils')
 
 
+class TestText2Html(unittest2.TestCase):
+
+    def test_text2html(self):
+        cases = [
+            ("First \nSecond \nThird\n \nParagraph\n\r--\nSignature paragraph", 'div',
+             "<div><p>First <br/>Second <br/>Third</p><p>Paragraph</p><p>--<br/>Signature paragraph</p></div>"),
+        ]
+        for content, container_tag, expected in cases:
+            html = text2html(content, container_tag)
+            self.assertEqual(html, expected, 'text2html is broken')
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest2.main()
diff --git a/openerp/tools/mail.py b/openerp/tools/mail.py
index cebc6313b08..861f6d82243 100644
--- a/openerp/tools/mail.py
+++ b/openerp/tools/mail.py
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ def html2plaintext(html, body_id=None, encoding='utf-8'):
     tree = fromstring(html, parser=HTMLParser())
 
     if body_id is not None:
-        source = tree.xpath('//*[@id=%s]'%(body_id,))
+        source = tree.xpath('//*[@id=%s]' % (body_id,))
     else:
         source = tree.xpath('//body')
     if len(source):
@@ -210,12 +210,12 @@ def html2plaintext(html, body_id=None, encoding='utf-8'):
 
     html = ustr(tostring(tree, encoding=encoding))
 
-    html = html.replace('<strong>','*').replace('</strong>','*')
-    html = html.replace('<b>','*').replace('</b>','*')
-    html = html.replace('<h3>','*').replace('</h3>','*')
-    html = html.replace('<h2>','**').replace('</h2>','**')
-    html = html.replace('<h1>','**').replace('</h1>','**')
-    html = html.replace('<em>','/').replace('</em>','/')
+    html = html.replace('<strong>', '*').replace('</strong>', '*')
+    html = html.replace('<b>', '*').replace('</b>', '*')
+    html = html.replace('<h3>', '*').replace('</h3>', '*')
+    html = html.replace('<h2>', '**').replace('</h2>', '**')
+    html = html.replace('<h1>', '**').replace('</h1>', '**')
+    html = html.replace('<em>', '/').replace('</em>', '/')
     html = html.replace('<tr>', '\n')
     html = html.replace('</p>', '\n')
     html = re.sub('<br\s*/?>', '\n', html)
@@ -229,10 +229,39 @@ def html2plaintext(html, body_id=None, encoding='utf-8'):
     for i, url in enumerate(url_index):
         if i == 0:
             html += '\n\n'
-        html += ustr('[%s] %s\n') % (i+1, url)
+        html += ustr('[%s] %s\n') % (i + 1, url)
 
     return html
 
+def text2html(text, container_tag='div'):
+    """ Convert plaintext into html. Content of the text is escaped to manage
+        html entities, using cgi.escape().
+        - all \n,\r are replaced by <br />
+        - enclose content into <p>
+        - 2 or more consecutive <br /> are considered as paragraph breaks
+
+        :param string container_tag: container of the html; by default the
+            content is embedded into a <div>
+    """
+    text = cgi.escape(text)
+
+    # 1. replace \n and \r
+    text = text.replace('\n', '<br/>')
+    text = text.replace('\r', '<br/>')
+
+    # 2-3: form paragraphs
+    idx = 0
+    final = '<p>'
+    br_tags = re.compile(r'(([<]\s*[bB][rR]\s*\/?[>]\s*){2,})')
+    for item in re.finditer(br_tags, text):
+        final += text[idx:item.start()] + '</p><p>'
+        idx = item.end()
+    final += text[idx:] + '</p>'
+
+    # 4. container
+    if container_tag:
+        final = '<%s>%s</%s>' % (container_tag, final, container_tag)
+    return final
 
 #----------------------------------------------------------
 # Emails