-.\" $OpenBSD: mdoc.7,v 1.154 2017/06/24 13:49:19 schwarze Exp $
+.\" $OpenBSD: mdoc.7,v 1.155 2017/06/29 13:16:39 schwarze Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2013-2017 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: June 24 2017 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: June 29 2017 $
.Dt MDOC 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Sx \&It
line itself; on following lines, only the
.Sx \&Ta
-macro can be used to delimit cells, and
+macro can be used to delimit cells, and portability requires that
.Sx \&Ta
-is only recognised as a macro when called by other macros,
-not as the first macro on a line.
+is called by other macros: some parsers do not recognize it when
+it appears as the first macro on a line.
.Pp
Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an
.Sx \&It