diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 27ff99004..7979bfc64 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2014-12-02  Werner Lemberg  <wl@gnu.org>
+
+	[docmaker] Properly handle empty rows in Synopsis.
+
+	* src/tools/docmaker/tohtml.py (HtmlFormatter::section_enter): Emit
+	`&nbsp;' for empty fields.
+
 2014-12-02  Werner Lemberg  <wl@gnu.org>
 
 	[docmaker] Thinko.
diff --git a/src/tools/docmaker/tohtml.py b/src/tools/docmaker/tohtml.py
index e05512ab3..9b2f2914c 100644
--- a/src/tools/docmaker/tohtml.py
+++ b/src/tools/docmaker/tohtml.py
@@ -594,7 +594,13 @@ class  HtmlFormatter( Formatter ):
                     line = line + '<td>'
                     if i < count:
                         name = section.block_names[i]
-                        if name != "/empty/":
+                        if name == "/empty/":
+                            # it can happen that a complete row is empty, and
+                            # without a proper `filler' the browser might
+                            # collapse the row to a much smaller height (or
+                            # even omit it completely)
+                            line = line + "&nbsp;"
+                        else:
                             line = ( line + '<a href="#' + name + '">'
                                      + name + '</a>' )