diff --git a/forms/HtmlEditorField.php b/forms/HtmlEditorField.php
index 369a3a193..c4994efa1 100755
--- a/forms/HtmlEditorField.php
+++ b/forms/HtmlEditorField.php
@@ -32,18 +32,32 @@ class HtmlEditorField extends TextareaField {
 	 * @return string
 	 */
 	function Field() {
+		// mark up broken links
+		$value  = new SS_HTMLValue($this->value);
+		
+		if($links = $value->getElementsByTagName('a')) foreach($links as $link) {
+			$matches = array();
+			
+			if(preg_match('/\[sitetree_link id=([0-9]+)\]/i', $link->getAttribute('href'), $matches)) {
+				if(!DataObject::get_by_id('SiteTree', $matches[1])) {
+					$class = $link->getAttribute('class');
+					$link->setAttribute('class', ($class ? "$class ss-broken" : 'ss-broken'));
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		
 		return $this->createTag (
 			'textarea',
 			array (
 				'class'   => $this->extraClass(),
 				'rows'    => $this->rows,
 				'cols'    => $this->cols,
-				'style'   => "width: 97%; height: " . ($this->rows * 16) . "px", // Prevents horizontal scrollbars
+				'style'   => 'width: 97%; height: ' . ($this->rows * 16) . 'px', // prevents horizontal scrollbars
 				'tinymce' => 'true',
 				'id'      => $this->id(),
 				'name'    => $this->name
 			),
-			htmlentities($this->value, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8')
+			htmlentities($value->getContent(), ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8')
 		);
 	}
 	
@@ -54,35 +68,38 @@ class HtmlEditorField extends TextareaField {
 			);
 		}
 		
-		$value = $this->value ? $this->value : '<p></p>';
-		$value = preg_replace('/src="([^\?]*)\?r=[0-9]+"/i', 'src="$1"', $value);
-		
 		$linkedPages = array();
 		$linkedFiles = array();
 		
-		$document = new DOMDocument(null, 'UTF-8');
-		$document->strictErrorChecking = false;
-		$document->loadHTML($value);
+		$htmlValue = new SS_HTMLValue($this->value);
 		
 		// Populate link tracking for internal links & links to asset files.
-		if($links = $document->getElementsByTagName('a')) foreach($links as $link) {
-			$link = Director::makeRelative($link->getAttribute('href'));
+		if($links = $htmlValue->getElementsByTagName('a')) foreach($links as $link) {
+			$href = Director::makeRelative($link->getAttribute('href'));
 			
-			if(preg_match('/\[sitetree_link id=([0-9]+)\]/i', $link, $matches)) {
+			if(preg_match('/\[sitetree_link id=([0-9]+)\]/i', $href, $matches)) {
 				$ID = $matches[1];
 				
+				// clear out any broken link classes
+				if($class = $link->getAttribute('class')) {
+					$link->setAttribute('class', preg_replace('/(^ss-broken|ss-broken$| ss-broken )/', null, $class));
+				}
+				
 				if($page = DataObject::get_by_id('SiteTree', $ID)) {
 					$linkedPages[] = $page->ID;
 				} else {
 					$record->HasBrokenLink = true;
 				}
-			} elseif($link[0] != '/' && $file = File::find($link)) {
+			} elseif($href[0] != '/' && $file = File::find($href)) {
 				$linkedFiles[] = $file->ID;
 			}
 		}
 		
 		// Resample images, add default attributes and add to assets tracking.
-		if($images = $document->getElementsByTagName('img')) foreach($images as $img) {
+		if($images = $htmlValue->getElementsByTagName('img')) foreach($images as $img) {
+			// strip any ?r=n data from the src attribute
+			$img->setAttribute('src', preg_replace('/([^\?]*)\?r=[0-9]+$/i', '$1', $img->getAttribute('src')));
+			
 			if(!$image = File::find($path = Director::makeRelative($img->getAttribute('src')))) {
 				if(substr($path, 0, strlen(ASSETS_DIR) + 1) == ASSETS_DIR . '/') {
 					$record->HasBrokenFile = true;
@@ -124,7 +141,7 @@ class HtmlEditorField extends TextareaField {
 			}
 		}
 		
-		$record->{$this->name} = substr(simplexml_import_dom($document)->body->asXML(), 6, -7);
+		$record->{$this->name} = $htmlValue->getContent();
 	}
 	
 	/**
diff --git a/integration/HTMLValue.php b/integration/HTMLValue.php
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..bc26c66d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/integration/HTMLValue.php
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * This class acts as a wrapper around the built in DOMDocument class in order to use it to manage a HTML snippet,
+ * rather than a whole document, while still exposing the DOMDocument API.
+ *
+ * @package sapphire
+ * @subpackage integration
+ */
+class SS_HTMLValue extends ViewableData {
+	
+	/**
+	 * @var DOMDocument
+	 */
+	protected $document;
+	
+	/**
+	 * @param string $content
+	 */
+	public function __construct($content = null) {
+		$this->document = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
+		$this->document->scrictErrorChecking = false;
+		
+		$this->setContent($content);
+		
+		parent::__construct();
+	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * @return string
+	 */
+	public function getContent() {
+		// strip the body tags from the output (which are automatically added by DOMDocument)
+		return preg_replace (
+			array (
+				'/^\s*<body[^>]*>/i',
+				'/<\/body[^>]*>\s*$/i'
+			),
+			null,
+			$this->getDocument()->saveXML($this->getDocument()->documentElement->lastChild)
+		);
+	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * @param string $content
+	 * @return bool
+	 */
+	public function setContent($content) {
+		return $this->getDocument()->loadHTML(
+			'<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head>' .
+			"<body>$content</body></html>"
+		);
+	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * @return DOMDocument
+	 */
+	public function getDocument() {
+		return $this->document;
+	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * A simple convenience wrapper around DOMDocument::getElementsByTagName().
+	 *
+	 * @param string $name
+	 * @return DOMNodeList
+	 */
+	public function getElementsByTagName($name) {
+		return $this->getDocument()->getElementsByTagName($name);
+	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * @see HTMLValue::getContent()
+	 */
+	public function forTemplate() {
+		return $this->getContent();
+	}
+	
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/forms/HtmlEditorFieldTest.php b/tests/forms/HtmlEditorFieldTest.php
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 7b73952f3..ce95b4b3d
--- a/tests/forms/HtmlEditorFieldTest.php
+++ b/tests/forms/HtmlEditorFieldTest.php
@@ -13,10 +13,6 @@ class HtmlEditorFieldTest extends FunctionalTest {
 		$sitetree = new SiteTree();
 		$editor   = new HtmlEditorField('Content');
 		
-		$editor->setValue('Un-enclosed Content');
-		$editor->saveInto($sitetree);
-		$this->assertEquals('<p>Un-enclosed Content</p>', $sitetree->Content, 'Un-enclosed content is put in p tags.');
-		
 		$editor->setValue('<p class="foo">Simple Content</p>');
 		$editor->saveInto($sitetree);
 		$this->assertEquals('<p class="foo">Simple Content</p>', $sitetree->Content, 'Attributes are preserved.');
@@ -32,7 +28,7 @@ class HtmlEditorFieldTest extends FunctionalTest {
 		
 		$editor->setValue(null);
 		$editor->saveInto($sitetree);
-		$this->assertEquals('<p/>', $sitetree->Content, 'Doesn\'t choke on null values.');
+		$this->assertEquals('', $sitetree->Content, "Doesn't choke on empty/null values.");
 	}
 	
 	public function testLinkTracking() {