diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 92b1bca4..6cf9618e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+    - added strip variable modifier, updated docs (Monte)
     - fixed access to $smarty.x variables as arrays. (Andrei)
     - fixed errors with example setup docs (Monte, Matthew
       Hagerty)
diff --git a/docs/designers.sgml b/docs/designers.sgml
index 8b24167b..0a3cacc9 100644
--- a/docs/designers.sgml
+++ b/docs/designers.sgml
@@ -1000,6 +1000,34 @@ OUTPUT:
 23.5787446
 23.58
 24</programlisting>
+</example>
+		</sect1>
+		<sect1 id="language.modifier.strip">
+			<title>strip</title>
+			<para>
+			This replaces all repeated spaces, newlines and tabs with a single
+			space, or with a supplied string.
+			</para>
+			<note>
+			<title>Note</title>
+			<para>
+			If you want to strip blocks of template text, use the <link
+			linkend="language.function.strip">strip function</link>.
+			</para>
+			</note>
+<example>
+<title>strip</title>
+<programlisting>
+{$articleTitle}
+{$articleTitle|strip}
+{$articleTitle|strip:"&amp;nbsp;"}
+
+OUTPUT:
+
+Grandmother of
+eight makes        hole in one
+Grandmother of eight makes hole in one
+Grandmother&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;eight&amp;nbsp;makes&amp;nbsp;hole&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;one</programlisting>
 </example>
 		</sect1>
 		<sect1 id="language.modifier.strip.tags">
@@ -2539,20 +2567,27 @@ e-mail: jane@mydomain.com&lt;p&gt;</programlisting>
 		<sect1 id="language.function.strip">
 			<title>strip</title>
 			<para>
-			Many times web designers
-			run into the issue where white space and carriage returns
-			affect the output of the rendered HTML (browser "features"), so you
-			must run all your tags together in the template to get the
-			desired results. This usually ends up in unreadable or
+			Many times web designers run into the issue where white space and
+			carriage returns affect the output of the rendered HTML (browser
+			"features"), so you must run all your tags together in the template
+			to get the desired results. This usually ends up in unreadable or
 			unmanagable templates.
 			</para>
 			<para>
-			Anything within {strip}{/strip} tags in Smarty are stripped of
-			the extra spaces or carriage returns at the beginnings and
-			ends of the lines before they are displayed.
-			This way you can keep your templates readable, and not worry
-			about extra white space causing problems.
+			Anything within {strip}{/strip} tags in Smarty are stripped of the
+			extra spaces or carriage returns at the beginnings and ends of the
+			lines before they are displayed. This way you can keep your
+			templates readable, and not worry about extra white space causing
+			problems.
 			</para>
+			<note>
+			<title>Technical Note</title>
+			<para>
+			{strip}{/strip} does not affect the contents of template variables.
+			See the <link linkend="language.modifier.strip">strip modifier
+			function</link>.
+			</para>
+			</note>
 <example>
 <title>strip tags</title>
 <programlisting>
diff --git a/libs/plugins/modifier.strip.php b/libs/plugins/modifier.strip.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8182f833
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs/plugins/modifier.strip.php
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * Smarty plugin
+ * -------------------------------------------------------------
+ * Type:     modifier
+ * Name:     strip
+ * Purpose:  Replace all repeated spaces, newlines, tabs
+ *           with a single space or supplied replacement string.
+ * Example:  {$var|strip} {$var|strip:"&nbsp;"}
+ * Author:   Monte Ohrt <monte@ispi.net>
+ * Version:  1.0
+ * Date:     September 25th, 2002
+ * -------------------------------------------------------------
+ */
+function smarty_modifier_strip($text, $replace = ' ')
+{
+	return preg_replace('!\s+!', $replace, $text);
+}
+
+/* vim: set expandtab: */
+
+?>
diff --git a/plugins/modifier.strip.php b/plugins/modifier.strip.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8182f833
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/modifier.strip.php
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * Smarty plugin
+ * -------------------------------------------------------------
+ * Type:     modifier
+ * Name:     strip
+ * Purpose:  Replace all repeated spaces, newlines, tabs
+ *           with a single space or supplied replacement string.
+ * Example:  {$var|strip} {$var|strip:"&nbsp;"}
+ * Author:   Monte Ohrt <monte@ispi.net>
+ * Version:  1.0
+ * Date:     September 25th, 2002
+ * -------------------------------------------------------------
+ */
+function smarty_modifier_strip($text, $replace = ' ')
+{
+	return preg_replace('!\s+!', $replace, $text);
+}
+
+/* vim: set expandtab: */
+
+?>