diff --git a/core/modules/widgets/view.js b/core/modules/widgets/view.js
index 7398a7da8..55fb51f7e 100755
--- a/core/modules/widgets/view.js
+++ b/core/modules/widgets/view.js
@@ -30,9 +30,14 @@ ViewWidget.prototype.render = function(parent,nextSibling) {
 	this.parentDomNode = parent;
 	this.computeAttributes();
 	this.execute();
-	var textNode = this.document.createTextNode(this.text);
-	parent.insertBefore(textNode,nextSibling);
-	this.domNodes.push(textNode);
+	if(this.text) {
+		var textNode = this.document.createTextNode(this.text);
+		parent.insertBefore(textNode,nextSibling);
+		this.domNodes.push(textNode);
+	} else {
+		this.makeChildWidgets();
+		this.renderChildren(parent,nextSibling);
+	}
 };
 
 /*
diff --git a/core/ui/PageMacros.tid b/core/ui/PageMacros.tid
index 312312f5c..0cdaefc1f 100644
--- a/core/ui/PageMacros.tid
+++ b/core/ui/PageMacros.tid
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 title: $:/core/ui/PageMacros
 
 \define tabs(tabsList,default,state:"$:/currentTab")
-<div class="tw-tab-buttons"><$list filter="$tabsList$" variable="currentTab"><$button set=<<qualify "$state$">> setTo=<<currentTab>> default="$default$" selectedClass="tw-tab-selected"><$macrocall $name="currentTab" $type="text/plain" $output="text/plain"/> </$button>
+<div class="tw-tab-buttons"><$list filter="$tabsList$" variable="currentTab"><$button set=<<qualify "$state$">> setTo=<<currentTab>> default="$default$" selectedClass="tw-tab-selected"><$view tiddler=<<currentTab>> field="caption"><$macrocall $name="currentTab" $type="text/plain" $output="text/plain"/></$view> </$button>
 </$list>
 </div>
 <div class="tw-tab-divider">
diff --git a/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/Release 5.0.0alpha13.tid b/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/Release 5.0.0alpha13.tid
index b5fc5f7a8..629403382 100644
--- a/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/Release 5.0.0alpha13.tid	
+++ b/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/Release 5.0.0alpha13.tid	
@@ -15,3 +15,4 @@ This release has several bug fixes:
 * Improved deployment scripts
 * Made the modifier field in the subtitle be a link
 * Styling improvements for the CodeMirror plugin
+* Improved the ViewWidget so that it falls back to displaying its content if the field/property is missing or empty
diff --git a/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/widgets/ViewWidget.tid b/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/widgets/ViewWidget.tid
index 66156e63b..d365e40b3 100644
--- a/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/widgets/ViewWidget.tid
+++ b/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/widgets/ViewWidget.tid
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ The view widget displays the contents of a tiddler field in a specified format.
 
 ! Content and Attributes
 
-The content of the `<$view>` widget is ignored.
+The content of the `<$view>` widget is displayed if the field or property is missing or empty.
 
 |!Attribute |!Description |
 |tiddler |The title of the tiddler (defaults to the [[WidgetVariable: currentTiddler]]) |