diff --git a/qrenderdoc/Code/QRDUtils.cpp b/qrenderdoc/Code/QRDUtils.cpp
index ea7bf625b..f4fc6c0d9 100644
--- a/qrenderdoc/Code/QRDUtils.cpp
+++ b/qrenderdoc/Code/QRDUtils.cpp
@@ -189,6 +189,8 @@ struct ShaderMessageLink
 
 Q_DECLARE_METATYPE(ShaderMessageLink);
 
+static QRegularExpression htmlRE(lit("<[^>]*>"));
+
 // this is an opaque struct that contains the data to render, hit-test, etc for some text that
 // contains links to resources. It will update and cache the names of the resources.
 struct RichResourceText
@@ -242,9 +244,24 @@ struct RichResourceText
       {
         text += lit("EID @%1").arg(v.toUInt());
       }
+      else if(v.userType() == qMetaTypeId<ShaderMessageLink>())
+      {
+        ShaderMessageLink link = v.value<ShaderMessageLink>();
+
+        text +=
+            QApplication::translate("qrenderdoc", "%n msg(s)", "Shader messages", link.numMessages);
+      }
       else
       {
-        text += v.toString();
+        if(forcehtml)
+        {
+          // strip html tags and convert any html entities
+          text += QUrl::fromPercentEncoding(v.toString().replace(htmlRE, QString()).toLatin1());
+        }
+        else
+        {
+          text += v.toString();
+        }
       }
     }
   }
@@ -340,7 +357,15 @@ struct RichResourceText
             lit("\n"),
             lit("</td></tr></table><table><tr><td valign=\"middle\" style=\"line-height: 14px\">"));
 
-        text += v.toString();
+        if(forcehtml)
+        {
+          text += QUrl::fromPercentEncoding(v.toString().replace(htmlRE, QString()).toLatin1());
+        }
+        else
+        {
+          text += v.toString();
+        }
+
         html += lit("<td valign=\"middle\" style=\"line-height: 14px\">%1</td>").arg(htmlfrag);
 
         numLines += newlines;
diff --git a/qrenderdoc/Windows/EventBrowser.cpp b/qrenderdoc/Windows/EventBrowser.cpp
index 505e7d260..569517a6c 100644
--- a/qrenderdoc/Windows/EventBrowser.cpp
+++ b/qrenderdoc/Windows/EventBrowser.cpp
@@ -1162,6 +1162,8 @@ private:
       }
     }
 
+    bool forceHTML = false;
+
     if(name.isEmpty())
     {
       for(const APIEvent &e : action->events)
@@ -1218,10 +1220,7 @@ private:
       if(name.isEmpty())
         qCritical() << "Couldn't find APIEvent for" << eid;
 
-      // force html even for events that don't reference resources etc, to get the italics for
-      // parameters
-      if(m_ShowParameterNames)
-        name = lit("<rdhtml>") + name + lit("</rdhtml>");
+      forceHTML = m_ShowParameterNames;
     }
 
     if(m_MessageCounts.contains(eid))
@@ -1231,6 +1230,11 @@ private:
         name += lit(" __rd_msgs::%1:%2").arg(eid).arg(count);
     }
 
+    // force html even for events that don't reference resources etc, to get the italics for
+    // parameters
+    if(forceHTML)
+      name = lit("<rdhtml>") + name + lit("</rdhtml>");
+
     QVariant v = name;
 
     RichResourceTextInitialise(v, &m_Ctx);