diff --git a/src/common/rclconfig.cpp b/src/common/rclconfig.cpp
index 54f368ee..b6badb6b 100644
--- a/src/common/rclconfig.cpp
+++ b/src/common/rclconfig.cpp
@@ -54,20 +54,16 @@
 
 using namespace std;
 
-// Static, logically const, RclConfig members are initialized once from the
-// first object build during process initialization.
+// Static, logically const, RclConfig members or module static
+// variables are initialized once from the first object build during
+// process initialization.
 
 // We default to a case- and diacritics-less index for now
 bool o_index_stripchars = true;
-
-// Store document text in index. Allows extracting snippets from text
-// instead of building them from index position data. Has become
-// necessary for versions of Xapian 1.6, which have dropped support
-// for the chert index format, and adopted a setup which renders our
-// use of positions list unacceptably slow in cases. The text just
-// translated from its original format to UTF-8 plain text, and is not
-// stripped of upper-case, diacritics, or punctuation signs.
-bool o_index_storedoctext = false;
+// Default to storing the text contents for generating snippets. This
+// is only an approximate 10% bigger index and produces nicer
+// snippets.
+bool o_index_storedoctext = true;
 
 bool o_uptodate_test_use_mtime = false;
 
diff --git a/src/common/rclconfig.h b/src/common/rclconfig.h
index 90be088f..249ce97f 100644
--- a/src/common/rclconfig.h
+++ b/src/common/rclconfig.h
@@ -446,10 +446,9 @@ extern bool o_index_stripchars;
 // instead of building them from index position data. Has become
 // necessary for versions of Xapian 1.6, which have dropped support
 // for the chert index format, and adopted a setup which renders our
-// use of positions list unacceptably slow in cases. 'raw' text here
-// means that the text is not stripped of upper-case, diacritics, or
-// punctuation signs. It is still translated from its original format
-// to UTF-8 plain text.
+// use of positions list unacceptably slow in cases. The text just
+// translated from its original format to UTF-8 plain text, and is not
+// stripped of upper-case, diacritics, or punctuation signs. Defaults to true.
 extern bool o_index_storedoctext;
 
 // This global variable defines if we use mtime instead of ctime for
diff --git a/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf b/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf
index 0ef39e12..d14c7204 100644
--- a/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf
+++ b/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ indexStripChars = 1
 # will not be stored if the variable is not set or set to 0. For later
 # Xapian versions, the variable does nothing, the text is always stored.
 # </desc></var>
-indexStoreDocText = 0
+indexStoreDocText = 1
 
 # <var name="nonumbers" type="bool"><brief>Decides if terms will be
 # generated for numbers.</brief><descr>For example "123", "1.5e6",