diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index a7491d76f6..ed10db6e13 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ hacking-doc: ../HACKING
 
 # when generating documentation, first try rst2html.py as it is the upstream default
 doc: geany.txt
+	(rst2html.py --version) < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 && \
 	rst2html.py -stg --stylesheet=geany.css $(srcdir)/geany.txt geany.html || \
 	rst2html -stg --stylesheet=geany.css $(srcdir)/geany.txt geany.html
 
diff --git a/waf b/waf
index a5feecbbd1..6533688f00 100755
Binary files a/waf and b/waf differ
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 5b9dfdc118..aa6dac4c46 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -418,13 +418,18 @@ def shutdown():
 		launch('doxygen ' + doxyfile, 'Generating API reference documentation')
 
 	if Options.options.htmldoc:
-		os.chdir('doc')
-		# first try rst2html.py as it is the upstream default
-		ret = launch('rst2html.py -stg --stylesheet=geany.css geany.txt geany.html',
-			'Generating HTML documentation')
-		if not ret == 0:
-			launch('rst2html -stg --stylesheet=geany.css geany.txt geany.html',
-					'Generating HTML documentation (using fallback "rst2html")')
+		# first try rst2html.py as it is the upstream default, fall back to rst2html
+		cmd = Configure.find_program_impl(Build.bld.env, 'rst2html.py')
+		if not cmd:
+			cmd = Configure.find_program_impl(Build.bld.env, 'rst2html')
+		if cmd:
+			os.chdir('doc')
+			ret = launch(cmd + ' -stg --stylesheet=geany.css geany.txt geany.html',
+				'Generating HTML documentation')
+		else:
+			Utils.pprint('RED',
+				'rst2html.py could not be found. Please install the Python docutils package.')
+			sys.exit(1)
 
 	if Options.options.update_po:
 		# the following code was taken from midori's WAF script, thanks