diff --git a/common/configopts.c b/common/configopts.c
index 93a8a39b..d45d4d64 100644
--- a/common/configopts.c
+++ b/common/configopts.c
@@ -197,11 +197,11 @@ cfg_opt_t titlebar_opts[] =
     /** Text alignment. */
     CFG_ALIGNMENT((char *) "text_align", (char *) "center", CFGF_NONE),
     /** Titlebar markup string for normal windows. */
-    CFG_STR((char *) "text_normal", (char *) "<bg color=\"#444444\"/>%t", CFGF_NONE),
+    CFG_STR((char *) "text_normal", (char *) "<bg color=\"#444444\"/><title/>", CFGF_NONE),
     /** Titlebar markup string for focused windows. */
-    CFG_STR((char *) "text_focus", (char *) "<bg color=\"#535d6c\"/>%t", CFGF_NONE),
+    CFG_STR((char *) "text_focus", (char *) "<bg color=\"#535d6c\"/><title/>", CFGF_NONE),
     /** Titlebar markup string for urgent windows. */
-    CFG_STR((char *) "text_urgent", (char *) "<bg color=\"#ff4500\"/>%t", CFGF_NONE),
+    CFG_STR((char *) "text_urgent", (char *) "<bg color=\"#ff4500\"/><title/>", CFGF_NONE),
     CFG_AWESOME_END()
 };
 /** This section defines general options. */
diff --git a/common/draw.c b/common/draw.c
index 5036ed91..135fc415 100644
--- a/common/draw.c
+++ b/common/draw.c
@@ -228,19 +228,19 @@ static bool
 draw_text_markup_expand(draw_parser_data_t *data,
                         const char *str, ssize_t slen)
 {
-    const char *elements[] = { "bg", NULL};
+    const char *elements[] = { "bg", NULL };
     markup_parser_data_t *p;
     int i;
 
-    p = markup_parser_data_new(elements, countof(elements));
+    p = markup_parser_data_new(elements, NULL, countof(elements));
 
     if(!markup_parse(p, str, slen))
         return false;
 
     /* bg */
-    if(p->attribute_values[0])
-        for(i = 0; p->attribute_values[0][i]; i++)
-            if(!strcmp(p->attribute_values[0][i], "color"))
+    if(p->attribute_names[0])
+        for(i = 0; p->attribute_names[0][i]; i++)
+            if(!a_strcmp(p->attribute_names[0][i], "color"))
                 data->has_bg_color = draw_color_new(data->connection, data->phys_screen,
                                                     p->attribute_values[0][i], &data->bg_color);
 
diff --git a/common/markup.c b/common/markup.c
index 06c6786b..495adce2 100644
--- a/common/markup.c
+++ b/common/markup.c
@@ -64,6 +64,12 @@ markup_parse_start_element(GMarkupParseContext *context __attribute__ ((unused))
                 p->attribute_names[i][j] = a_strdup(attribute_names[j]);
                 p->attribute_values[i][j] = a_strdup(attribute_values[j]);
             }
+            if(p->elements_sub && p->elements_sub[i])
+            {
+                asprintf(&newtext, "%s%s", NONULL(p->text), p->elements_sub[i]);
+                p_delete(&p->text);
+                p->text = newtext;
+            }
             return;
         }
 
@@ -150,18 +156,21 @@ markup_parse_text(GMarkupParseContext *context __attribute__ ((unused)),
 
 /** Create a markup_parser_data_t structure with elements list.
  * \param elements an array of elements to look for, NULL terminated
- * \param number of elements in the array (without NULL)
+ * \param elements_sub an optionnal array of values to substitude to elements, NULL
+ *        terminated, or NULL if not needed
+ * \param nelem number of elements in the array (without NULL)
  * \return a pointer to an allocated markup_parser_data_t which must be freed
- * with markup_parser_data_delete()
+ *         with markup_parser_data_delete()
  */
 markup_parser_data_t *
-markup_parser_data_new(const char **elements, ssize_t nelem)
+markup_parser_data_new(const char **elements, const char **elements_sub, ssize_t nelem)
 {
     markup_parser_data_t *p;
 
     p = p_new(markup_parser_data_t, 1);
 
     p->elements = elements;
+    p->elements_sub = elements_sub;
     p->attribute_names = p_new(char **, nelem);
     p->attribute_values = p_new(char **, nelem);
 
diff --git a/common/markup.h b/common/markup.h
index 17b9dc4f..f0306c74 100644
--- a/common/markup.h
+++ b/common/markup.h
@@ -28,11 +28,12 @@ typedef struct
 {
     char *text;
     const char **elements;
+    const char **elements_sub;
     char ***attribute_names;
     char ***attribute_values;
 } markup_parser_data_t;
 
-markup_parser_data_t * markup_parser_data_new(const char **, ssize_t);
+markup_parser_data_t * markup_parser_data_new(const char **, const char **, ssize_t);
 void markup_parser_data_delete(markup_parser_data_t **);
 bool markup_parse(markup_parser_data_t *data, const char *, ssize_t);
 
diff --git a/titlebar.c b/titlebar.c
index df6902e0..4b69ad9f 100644
--- a/titlebar.c
+++ b/titlebar.c
@@ -27,38 +27,23 @@
 #include "titlebar.h"
 #include "screen.h"
 #include "layouts/floating.h"
+#include "common/markup.h"
 
 extern AwesomeConf globalconf;
 
 static char *
 titlebar_markup_parse(client_t *c, const char *str, ssize_t len)
 {
-    const char *ps;
-    char *new;
-    int i = 0;
-    ssize_t clen;
-   
-    new = p_new(char, ++len);
+    const char *elements[] = { "title", NULL };
+    const char *elements_sub[] = { c->name , NULL };
+    markup_parser_data_t *p;
 
-    for(ps = str; *ps; ps++, i++)
-        if(*ps == '%')
-        {
-            ps++;
-            if(*ps == '%')
-                new[i] = '%';
-            else if(*ps == 't')
-            {
-                clen = a_strlen(c->name);
-                len += clen;
-                p_realloc(&new, len);
-                a_strcat(new + i, len - i,  c->name);
-                i += clen - 1;
-            }
-        }
-        else
-            new[i] = *ps;
+    p = markup_parser_data_new(elements, elements_sub, countof(elements));
 
-    return new;
+    if(!markup_parse(p, str, len))
+        return a_strdup(str);
+
+    return p->text;
 }
 
 static char *