diff --git a/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.reader b/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.reader
index 49f3e14..63cc4de 100755
--- a/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.reader
+++ b/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.reader
@@ -299,6 +299,7 @@ class MusicXMLListener
     #
     # Interesting text nodes have @kind set
     #
+    @text.strip!
     if @kind
       case @kind
       when 'textProp' 
diff --git a/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.writer b/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.writer
index cc5e57d..834acd6 100755
--- a/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.writer
+++ b/Filters/VLMusicXMLType.writer
@@ -434,13 +434,22 @@ def _score
   return score
 end
 
+NEW_REXML = REXML::VERSION > "3.1.7"
+
 xml  = REXML::Document.new 
 xml.add REXML::XMLDecl.new('1.0', 'UTF-8')
 xml.add REXML::DocType.new(['score-partwise', 'PUBLIC',
 	 '"-//Recordare//DTD MusicXML 1.1 Partwise//EN"',
-	 '"http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd"'])
+         NEW_REXML ? 'http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd' :
+	             '"http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd"'])
 xml.add_element(_score)
-xml.write($stdout, 0)
+if NEW_REXML
+  formatter = REXML::Formatters::Pretty.new(2)
+  formatter.compact = true
+  formatter.write(xml, $stdout)
+else
+  xml.write($stdout, 0)
+end
 
 # Local Variables:
 # mode:ruby