2 files changed, 17 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/App/CommandLineOptions.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/App/CommandLineOptions.hs
index 14f665aa9..0757e77ff 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/App/CommandLineOptions.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/App/CommandLineOptions.hs
@@ -794,10 +794,11 @@ options =
                                 setUserDataDir Nothing
                                 getDefaultTemplate arg
                      case templ of
-                          Right "" -> -- e.g. for docx, odt, json:
-                            E.throwIO $ PandocCouldNotFindDataFileError
-                               ("templates/default." ++ arg)
-                          Right t -> write t
+                          Right t
+                            | T.null t -> -- e.g. for docx, odt, json:
+                                E.throwIO $ PandocCouldNotFindDataFileError
+                                  ("templates/default." ++ arg)
+                            | otherwise -> write . T.unpack $ t
                           Left e  -> E.throwIO e
                      exitSuccess)
                   "FORMAT")
diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/App/OutputSettings.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/App/OutputSettings.hs
index 31bd64c4c..ae78ba15e 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/App/OutputSettings.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/App/OutputSettings.hs
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ optToOutputSettings opts = do
                       return $ ("dzslides-core", dzcore) : vars
                   else return vars)
 
-  templ <- case optTemplate opts of
+  templStr <- case optTemplate opts of
                   _ | not standalone -> return Nothing
                   Nothing -> Just <$> getDefaultTemplate format
                   Just tp -> do
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ optToOutputSettings opts = do
                     let tp' = case takeExtension tp of
                                    "" -> tp <.> format
                                    _  -> tp
-                    Just . UTF8.toString <$>
+                    Just . UTF8.toText <$>
                           ((do surl <- stSourceURL <$> getCommonState
                                -- we don't want to look for templates remotely
                                -- unless the full URL is specified:
@@ -188,6 +188,16 @@ optToOutputSettings opts = do
                                        readDataFile ("templates" </> tp')
                                     _ -> throwError e))
 
+  let templatePath = fromMaybe "" $ optTemplate opts
+
+  templ <- case templStr of
+             Nothing -> return Nothing
+             Just ts -> do
+               res <- compileTemplate templatePath ts
+               case res of
+                 Left  e -> throwError $ PandocTemplateError e
+                 Right t -> return $ Just t
+
   case lookup "lang" (optMetadata opts) of
          Just l  -> case parseBCP47 l of
                          Left _   -> return ()