diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 214a99ee..fe8b8d9e 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -250,10 +250,14 @@ dnl
 dnl Check doc stuff
 dnl
 
-AC_PATH_PROG(DB2X_XSLPROC, db2x_xsltproc)
-AC_PATH_PROG(DB2X_MANXML, db2x_manxml)
-AC_PATH_PROG(XSLPROC, xsltproc)
-AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_DOCSTUFF, test $DB2X_XSLPROC -a $DB2X_MANXML -a $XSLPROC)
+AC_CHECK_PROGS(db2x_xsltproc_cmd, db2x_xsltproc)
+AC_CHECK_PROGS(db2x_manxml_cmd, db2x_manxml)
+AC_CHECK_PROGS(xsltproc_cmd, xsltproc)
+if test x$db2x_xsltproc_cmd = "x" -o x$xsltproc_cmd = "x"; then
+	AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_DOCSTUFF, false)
+else
+	AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_DOCSTUFF, true)
+fi
 
 dnl
 dnl Check sysinfo()
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index 22436671..4062c242 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -1,19 +1,19 @@
-clean-am: clean-generic mostlyclean-am
-	rm -f docs.mxml
-	rm -f conky.1
-
 if HAVE_DOCSTUFF
 
 man_MANS = conky.1 ../README docs.html
 
+clean-am: clean-generic mostlyclean-am
+	rm -f docs.mxml
+	rm -f conky.1
+
 conky.1: command_options.xml config_settings.xml docs.xml variables.xml 
-	${DB2X_XSLPROC} -s man ${srcdir}/docs.xml -o docs.mxml
-	${DB2X_MANXML} docs.mxml
+	${db2x_xsltproc_cmd} -s man ${srcdir}/docs.xml -o docs.mxml
+	${db2x_manxml_cmd} docs.mxml
 
 docs.html: command_options.xml config_settings.xml docs.xml variables.xml
-	${XSLPROC} http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/html/docbook.xsl ${srcdir}/docs.xml > docs.html
+	${xsltproc_cmd} http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/html/docbook.xsl ${srcdir}/docs.xml > docs.html
 
-../README: conky.1.gz
+../README: conky.1
 	man ./conky.1 | col -b > README
 	mv README ${top_srcdir}
 else