diff --git a/doc/common.m4 b/doc/common.m4
index 0c79c11a4..3be2c0ff5 100644
--- a/doc/common.m4
+++ b/doc/common.m4
@@ -28,8 +28,9 @@ This doc is for version **_version_**
 m4_dnl comment (dev) for releases, uncomment between releases:
 m4_dnl (dev)
 .
-<span class="docversions">m4_dnl
-</span>)m4_dnl
+m4_dnl <span class="docversions">m4_dnl
+m4_dnl </span>
+)m4_dnl
 m4_dnl
 m4_dnl Helpers for generating table markup.
 m4_dnl _table_({{