diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 5da63348a..382fa7e51 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ AC_MSG_RESULT($has_pyglade)
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([
 po/Makefile.in
+po/Makevars
 m4/Makefile
 Makefile
 gramps.sh
diff --git a/po/Makevars.in b/po/Makevars.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5dc67b1c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/po/Makevars.in
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Makefile variables for PO directory using GNU gettext.
+
+
+# These options get passed to xgettext.
+
+
+XGETTEXT_OPTIONS = --package-name=@PACKAGE@ \
+	--package-version=@VERSIONSTRING@ \
+	--add-comments="TRANS:" \
+	--no-wrap
+                                    
+                        
+# possible options to include:
+#           -c, --add-comments[=TAG]           place comment block with TAG (or those 
+#                                                                   preceding keyword lines) in output file
+#            -k, --keyword[=WORD]                  additional keyword to be looked for (without
+#                                                                    WORD means not to use default keywords)
+#The default keyword specifications, which are always looked for if not
+#explicitly disabled are: gettext
+#                                   ugettext
+#                                   dgettext:2 
+#                                   ngettext:1,2 
+#                                   ungettext:1,2
+#                                   dngettext:2,3
+#                                   _
+#
+#For xgettext be able to extract strings in python file with import statment like tis:
+#
+#   from gettext import ngettext as _s
+#
+#you need to append this: "--keyword=_s:1,2 " 
+#to line XGETTEXT_OPTIONS