diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 9cbf0ebe27f..494fd391df5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-1996 TestHStoreFile fails on windows if run multiple times
     HADOOP-1937 When the master times out a region server's lease, it is too 
                 aggressive in reclaiming the server's log.
+    HADOOP-2004 webapp hql formatting bugs 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
     HADOOP-1737 Make HColumnDescriptor data publically members settable
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/DescCommand.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/DescCommand.java
index dc516a2db09..56e2e053428 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/DescCommand.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/DescCommand.java
@@ -76,8 +76,8 @@ public class DescCommand extends BasicCommand {
           tmp = tmp.substring(1, tmp.length() - 1);
         }
         columnStrs[i] = tmp;
+        formatter.row(new String [] {columnStrs[i]});
       }
-      formatter.row(columnStrs);
       formatter.footer();
       return new ReturnMsg(1, columns.length + " columnfamily(s) in set");
     } catch (IOException e) {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/formatter/HtmlTableFormatter.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/formatter/HtmlTableFormatter.java
index bd9842bcf12..318e471d9b2 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/formatter/HtmlTableFormatter.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shell/formatter/HtmlTableFormatter.java
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.shell.formatter;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.shell.TableFormatter;
@@ -8,14 +9,14 @@ import org.znerd.xmlenc.LineBreak;
 import org.znerd.xmlenc.XMLOutputter;
 
 /**
- * Formatter that outputs data inside an HTML table.
- * If only a single cell result, then no formatting is done.  Presumption is
- * that client manages serial access outputting tables.  Does not close passed
- * {@link Writer}.
+ * Formatter that outputs data inside an HTML table. If only a single cell
+ * result, then no formatting is done.  Presumption is that client manages
+ * serial access outputting tables.  Does not close passed {@link Writer}.
+ * Since hbase columns have no typing, the formatter presumes a type of
+ * UTF-8 String.  If cells contain images, etc., this formatter will mangle
+ * their display.
  * <p>TODO: Uses xmlenc. Hopefully it flushes every so often (Claims its a 
  * stream-based outputter).  Verify.
- * <p>For now, invoke it this way (until shell starts to take cmdline params);
- * <code>$ HBASE_OPTS='-Dhbaseshell.formatter=org.apache.hadoop.hbase.shell.TableFormatterFactory$HtmlTableFormatter' ./bin/hbase shell</code>
  */
 public class HtmlTableFormatter implements TableFormatter {
   private final XMLOutputter outputter;
@@ -70,7 +71,7 @@ public class HtmlTableFormatter implements TableFormatter {
 
   public void row(String [] cells) throws IOException{
     if (isNoFormatting()) {
-      this.outputter.pcdata(cells[0]);
+      getOut().write(cells[0]);
       return;
     }
     this.outputter.startTag("tr");
@@ -108,4 +109,12 @@ public class HtmlTableFormatter implements TableFormatter {
   public void setNoFormatting(boolean noFormatting) {
     this.noFormatting = noFormatting;
   }
+  
+  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
+    HtmlTableFormatter f =
+      new HtmlTableFormatter(new OutputStreamWriter(System.out, "UTF-8"));
+    f.header(new String [] {"a", "b"});
+    f.row(new String [] {"a", "b"});
+    f.footer();
+  }
 }
\ No newline at end of file