diff --git a/phpBB/viewtopic.php b/phpBB/viewtopic.php
index 5c117953dd..6aa6914265 100644
--- a/phpBB/viewtopic.php
+++ b/phpBB/viewtopic.php
@@ -458,8 +458,8 @@ if( isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['highlight']) )
 	{
 		if( trim($words[$i]) != "" )
 		{
-			$highlight_match[] = "#\b(" . str_replace("\*", ".*?", phpbb_preg_quote($words[$i], "#")) . ")(?!.*?<\/a>)(?!.*?\[/url\])(?!.*?<\/span>)\b#i";
-			$highlight_replace[] = '<span style="color:#' . $theme['fontcolor3'] . '"><b>\\1</b></span>';
+			$highlight_match[] = "#\b(" . str_replace("\*", ".*?", $words[$i]) . ")(?!(.*?".">.*?<)|(.*?\">))\b#i";
+			$highlight_replace[] = '<span style="color:#' . $theme['fontcolor3'] . '"><b>\1</b></span>';
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -998,15 +998,6 @@ for($i = 0; $i < $total_posts; $i++)
 	// output
 	//
 
-	//
-	// Highlight active words (primarily for search)
-	//
-	if( $highlight_active )
-	{
-		$message = preg_replace($highlight_match, $highlight_replace, $message);
-	}
-
-
 	//
 	// If the board has HTML off but the post has HTML
 	// on then we process it, else leave it alone
@@ -1046,6 +1037,14 @@ for($i = 0; $i < $total_posts; $i++)
 	}
 	$message = make_clickable($message);
 
+	//
+	// Highlight active words (primarily for search)
+	//
+	if( $highlight_active )
+	{
+		$message = preg_replace($highlight_match, $highlight_replace, $message);
+	}
+
 	//
 	// Replace naughty words
 	//