diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 3c20dbe91..bbca9595e 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+2007-06-16  Emmanuele Bassi  <ebassi@openedhand.com>
+
+	* configure.ac: If the programs required to build the manual
+	are not found and --enable-manual was passed, then just print
+	a warning and disable the manual build instead of aborting the
+	configure.
+
+	* doc/manual/Makefile.am: Use the full path gathered by the
+	configure script when invoking jw and xmlto.
+
 2007-06-16  Matthew Allum  <mallum@openedhand.com>
 
 	* clutter/clutter-actor.c:
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 512be5aaa..7262f361a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -262,19 +262,21 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(manual,
                              [Build application developers manual. Requires jw and xmlto binaries.]),
               enable_manual=$enableval, enable_manual=no)
 
-if "x$enable_manual" = "xyes"; then
-  AC_PATH_PROG(HAVE_JW, jw, no)
-  if test "x$HAVE_JW" = "xno"; then
-    AC_MSG_ERROR(['jw' program not found in path - required for building manual.])
+if test "x$enable_manual" = "xyes"; then
+  AC_PATH_PROG(JW, jw, no)
+  if test "x$JW" = "xno"; then
+    AC_MSG_WARN(['jw' program not found in path, disabling manual])
+    enable_manual=no
   fi
 
-  AC_PATH_PROG(HAVE_XMLTO, xmlto, no)
-  if test "x$HAVE_XMLTO" = "xno"; then
-    AC_MSG_ERROR(['xmlto' program not found in path - required for building manual.])
+  AC_PATH_PROG(XMLTO, xmlto, no)
+  if test "x$XMLTO" = "xno"; then
+    AC_MSG_WARN(['xmlto' program not found in path, disabling manual])
+    enable_manual=no
   fi
 fi
 
-AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_MANUAL, test x$enable_manual != xno)
+AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_MANUAL, test "x$enable_manual" != "xno")
 
 dnl ========================================================================
 
diff --git a/doc/manual/Makefile.am b/doc/manual/Makefile.am
index 409fcda26..be30d7aaa 100644
--- a/doc/manual/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/manual/Makefile.am
@@ -5,19 +5,19 @@ EXTRA_DIST =  clutter-manual.xml.in manual.xsl style.css $(srcdir)/$(IMAGE_FILES
 CLEANFILES = pdf-build.stamp txt-build.stamp htmldoc-build.stamp clutter-manual.xml
 
 pdf-build.stamp: clutter-manual.xml
-	SP_ENCODING=XML SP_CHARSET_FIXED=YES jw \
-		-b pdf $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.xml && \
+	SP_ENCODING=XML SP_CHARSET_FIXED=YES \
+	$(JW) -b pdf $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.xml && \
 	mv $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.pdf clutter-manual-@CLUTTER_MAJORMINOR@.pdf && \
 	touch pdf-build.stamp
 
 txt-build.stamp: clutter-manual.xml
-	xmlto txt $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.xml && \
+	$(XMLTO) txt $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.xml && \
 	mv $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.txt clutter-manual-@CLUTTER_MAJORMINOR@.txt && \
 	touch txt-build.stamp
 
 htmldoc-build.stamp: clutter-manual.xml
 	$(mkinstalldirs) html && \
-	xmlto -m manual.xsl -o html/ xhtml $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.xml && \
+	$(XMLTO) -m manual.xsl -o html/ xhtml $(srcdir)/clutter-manual.xml && \
 	cp $(srcdir)/style.css html/ && \
 	touch htmldoc-build.stamp