diff --git a/bee.go b/bee.go
index cda8ac4..840bf50 100644
--- a/bee.go
+++ b/bee.go
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ package main
 import (
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
-	"html/template"
 	"io"
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"strings"
+	"text/template"
 )
 
 const version = "1.5.2"
@@ -41,10 +41,10 @@ type Command struct {
 	UsageLine string
 
 	// Short is the short description shown in the 'go help' output.
-	Short template.HTML
+	Short string
 
 	// Long is the long message shown in the 'go help <this-command>' output.
-	Long template.HTML
+	Long string
 
 	// Flag is a set of flags specific to this command.
 	Flag flag.FlagSet
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ var helpTemplate = `{{"USAGE" | headline}}
 {{if .Options}}{{endline}}{{"OPTIONS" | headline}}{{range $k,$v := .Options}}
   {{$k | printf "-%-11s" | bold}} {{$v}}{{end}}{{endline}}{{end}}
 {{"DESCRIPTION" | headline}}
-  {{.Long | trim}}
+  {{tmpltostr .Long . | trim}}
 `
 
 var errorTemplate = `bee: %s.
@@ -204,18 +204,11 @@ func usage() {
 func tmpl(text string, data interface{}) {
 	output := NewColorWriter(os.Stderr)
 
-	t := template.New("top")
-	t.Funcs(template.FuncMap{
-		"trim":     func(s template.HTML) template.HTML { return template.HTML(strings.TrimSpace(string(s))) },
-		"bold":     bold,
-		"headline": MagentaBold,
-		"endline":  EndLine,
-	})
-
+	t := template.New("usage").Funcs(BeeFuncMap())
 	template.Must(t.Parse(text))
-	if err := t.Execute(output, data); err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+
+	err := t.Execute(output, data)
+	MustCheck(err)
 }
 
 func help(args []string) {
diff --git a/util.go b/util.go
index a13ade2..fcfaeca 100644
--- a/util.go
+++ b/util.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"regexp"
 	"runtime"
 	"strings"
+	"text/template"
 	"time"
 )
 
@@ -281,3 +283,26 @@ func __LINE__() int {
 	_, _, line, _ := runtime.Caller(1)
 	return line
 }
+
+// BeeFuncMap returns a FuncMap of functions used in different templates.
+func BeeFuncMap() template.FuncMap {
+	return template.FuncMap{
+		"trim":      strings.TrimSpace,
+		"bold":      bold,
+		"headline":  MagentaBold,
+		"endline":   EndLine,
+		"tmpltostr": TmplToString,
+	}
+}
+
+// TmplToString parses a text template and return the result as a string.
+func TmplToString(tmpl string, data interface{}) string {
+	t := template.New("tmpl").Funcs(BeeFuncMap())
+	template.Must(t.Parse(tmpl))
+
+	var doc bytes.Buffer
+	err := t.Execute(&doc, data)
+	MustCheck(err)
+
+	return doc.String()
+}