diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index f792aec7..76ec6273 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -622,7 +622,9 @@ if MAKEUSERDOC
 rdocdir = $(pkgdatadir)/doc
 rdoc_DATA = doc/user/usermanual.html doc/user/docbook-xsl.css 
 doc/user/usermanual.html: doc/user/usermanual.xml
-	$(MAKE) -C doc/user
+	mkdir -p doc/user
+	cp -p $(top_srcdir)/doc/user/Makefile doc/user
+	$(MAKE) -C doc/user VPATH=../../$(VPATH)/doc/user usermanual.html
 endif
 
 dist_man1_MANS = doc/man/recoll.1 doc/man/recollq.1 doc/man/recollindex.1
diff --git a/src/doc/user/Makefile b/src/doc/user/Makefile
index d545b17d..1262690b 100644
--- a/src/doc/user/Makefile
+++ b/src/doc/user/Makefile
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ all: usermanual.html usermanual.pdf
 
 usermanual.html: usermanual.xml
 	xsltproc ${commonoptions} \
-            -o tmpfile.html "${XSLDIR}/html/docbook.xsl" usermanual.xml
+            -o tmpfile.html "${XSLDIR}/html/docbook.xsl" $<
 	-tidy -indent tmpfile.html > usermanual.html
 	rm -f tmpfile.html
 
@@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ index.html: usermanual.xml
 	xsltproc ${commonoptions} \
             --stringparam use.id.as.filename 1 \
             --stringparam root.filename index \
-            "${XSLDIR}/html/chunk.xsl" usermanual.xml
+            "${XSLDIR}/html/chunk.xsl" $<
 
 usermanual.pdf: usermanual.xml
-	dblatex usermanual.xml 
+	dblatex $<
 
 clean:
 	rm -f RCL.*.html usermanual.pdf usermanual.html index.html tmpfile.html