diff --git a/src/query/plaintorich.cpp b/src/query/plaintorich.cpp
index 7076d344..f612f033 100644
--- a/src/query/plaintorich.cpp
+++ b/src/query/plaintorich.cpp
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include <vector>
 #include <map>
 #include <algorithm>
+#include <regex>
 
 using std::vector;
 using std::list;
@@ -149,6 +150,16 @@ bool TextSplitPTR::matchGroups()
     return true;
 }
 
+// Replace HTTP(s) urls in text/plain with proper HTML anchors so that
+// they become clickable in the preview. We don't make a lot of effort
+// for validating, or catching things which are probably urls but miss
+// a scheme (e.g. www.xxx.com/index.html), because complicated.
+static const string urlRE = "(https?://[[:alnum:]~_/.%?&=,#@]+)[[:space:]|]";
+static std::regex url_re(urlRE);
+static string activate_urls(const string& in)
+{
+    return std::regex_replace(in, url_re, "<a href=\"$1\">$1</a>");
+}
 
 // Fix result text for display inside the gui text window.
 //
@@ -186,7 +197,7 @@ bool PlainToRich::plaintorich(const string& in,
 
     // Rich text output
     *olit = header();
-
+    
     // No term matches. Happens, for example on a snippet selected for
     // a term match when we are actually looking for a group match
     // (the snippet generator does this...).
@@ -288,6 +299,9 @@ bool PlainToRich::plaintorich(const string& in,
             // chunks cut in the middle of <a></a> for example).
             if (!m_inputhtml && !inrcltag && 
                 olit->size() > (unsigned int)chunksize) {
+                if (m_activatelinks) {
+                    *olit = activate_urls(*olit);
+                }
                 out.push_back(string(startChunk()));
                 olit++;
             }
@@ -365,5 +379,8 @@ bool PlainToRich::plaintorich(const string& in,
     }
 #endif
     LOGDEB2("plaintorich: done " << chron.millis() << " mS\n");
+    if (!m_inputhtml && m_activatelinks) {
+        out.back() = activate_urls(out.back());
+    }
     return ret;
 }
diff --git a/src/query/plaintorich.h b/src/query/plaintorich.h
index 67a0c42a..e2d9f430 100644
--- a/src/query/plaintorich.h
+++ b/src/query/plaintorich.h
@@ -31,15 +31,14 @@
  */
 class PlainToRich {
 public:
-    PlainToRich() 
-        : m_inputhtml(false), m_eolbr(false), m_hdata(0) {
-    }
-
     virtual ~PlainToRich() {}
 
     void set_inputhtml(bool v) {
         m_inputhtml = v;
     }
+    void set_activatelinks(bool v) {
+        m_activatelinks = v;
+    }
 
     /**
      * Transform plain text for highlighting search terms, ie in the
@@ -89,10 +88,11 @@ public:
     }
 
 protected:
-    bool m_inputhtml;
+    bool m_inputhtml{false};
     // Use <br> to break plain text lines (else caller has used a <pre> tag)
-    bool m_eolbr; 
-    const HighlightData *m_hdata;
+    bool m_eolbr{false}; 
+    const HighlightData *m_hdata{0};
+    bool m_activatelinks{false};
 };
 
 #endif /* _PLAINTORICH_H_INCLUDED_ */