diff --git a/Changelog b/Changelog
index 2a80266..94f24ea 100644
--- a/Changelog
+++ b/Changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+ 2.03    - fixed bug in the _parse() routine (better: design flaw).
+           after the last patch for allowing whitespaces in
+	   option names, it had a problem with here-docs which
+	   contained equal signs. option/value splitting resulted
+	   in weird output.
+
+	 - as a side effect of the bug fix below it is now
+	   possible to use equal signs inside quoted values, which
+	   will then be ignored, thus not used for splitting
+	   the line into an option/value assignment.
+
+	 - added a new test, which tests for all possible notations
+	   of option/value lines.
+
  2.02    - added patch by Jens Heunemann, which allows to use
            whitespaces in option names.
 
diff --git a/General.pm b/General.pm
index f49602f..42498ff 100644
--- a/General.pm
+++ b/General.pm
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ use strict;
 use Carp;
 use Exporter;
 
-$Config::General::VERSION = "2.02";
+$Config::General::VERSION = "2.03";
 
 use vars  qw(@ISA @EXPORT);
 @ISA    = qw(Exporter);
@@ -344,24 +344,30 @@ sub _parse {
   my($this, $config, $content) = @_;
   my(@newcontent, $block, $blockname, $grab, $chunk,$block_level);
   local $_;
+  my $indichar = chr(182);  # ¶, inserted by _open, our here-doc indicator
+
   foreach (@{$content}) {                                  # loop over content stack
     chomp;
     $chunk++;
     $_ =~ s/^\s*//;                                        # strip spaces @ end and begin
     $_ =~ s/\s*$//;
 
-    # my ($option,$value) = split /\s*=\s*|\s+/, $_, 2;      # option/value assignment, = is optional
+    #
+    # build option value assignment, split current input
+    # using whitespace, equal sign or optionally here-doc
+    # separator (ascii 182).
+    my ($option,$value);
+    if (/$indichar/) {
+      ($option,$value) = split /\s*$indichar\s*/, $_, 2;   # separated by heredoc-finding in _open()
+    }
+    elsif (/^[^\"]+?=/) {
+      ($option,$value) = split /\s*=\s*/, $_, 2;           # using equal if not inside quotes
+    }
+    else {
+      ($option,$value) = split /\s+/, $_, 2;               # option/value assignment, = is optional
+    }
 
-     my ($option,$value);
-     if (/=/) {
-       ($option,$value) = split /\s*=\s*/, $_, 2;      # option/value assignment, = is optional
-     }
-     else {
-       ($option,$value) = split /\s+/, $_, 2;          # option/value assignment, = is optional
-     }
 
-    my $indichar = chr(182);                               # ¶, inserted by _open, our here-doc indicator
-    $value =~ s/^$indichar// if($value);                   # a here-doc begin, remove indicator
     if ($value && $value =~ /^"/ && $value =~ /"$/) {
       $value =~ s/^"//;                                    # remove leading and trailing "
       $value =~ s/"$//;
@@ -1575,7 +1581,7 @@ Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-2.02
+2.03
 
 =cut
 
diff --git a/README b/README
index 89702ea..df159df 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -98,4 +98,4 @@ AUTHOR
 
 
 VERSION
-	2.02
+	2.03
diff --git a/t/cfg.19 b/t/cfg.19
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b0d899
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/cfg.19
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#
+# these options must all in
+# msg[\d] keys.
+#
+msg1 = "Das ist ein Test"
+msg2 = "Das = ein Test"
+msg3   "Das ist ein Test"
+msg4   "Das = ein Test"
+
+msg6 = <<EOF
+  Das = ein Test
+EOF
+
+msg7 <<EOF
+  Das = ein Test
+msg7
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/t/cfg.4 b/t/cfg.4
index 546cfcf..ab20da4 100644
--- a/t/cfg.4
+++ b/t/cfg.4
@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
+/*
 # Here-document test
-message <<EOF
+message = <<EOF
   yes. we are not here. you
   can reach us somewhere in
   outerspace.
   # and this line will remain inside the here-doc!
 EOF
+*/
+
+header = <<EOF
+  <table border="0">
+  </table>
+EOF
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/t/run.t b/t/run.t
index 2323c2a..baf2a71 100644
--- a/t/run.t
+++ b/t/run.t
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #
 # Under normal circumstances every test should succeed.
 
-BEGIN { $| = 1; print "1..18\n";}
+BEGIN { $| = 1; print "1..19\n";}
 use lib "blib/lib";
 use Config::General;
 use Data::Dumper;
@@ -170,7 +170,23 @@ else {
 
 
 
-
+# testing various otion/value assignemnt notations
+my $conf19 = new Config::General(-file => "t/cfg.19");
+my %h19 = $conf19->getall();
+my $works = 1;
+foreach my $key (keys %h19) {
+  if ($key =~ /\s/) {
+    $works = 0;
+  }
+}
+if ($works) {
+  print "ok\n";
+  print STDERR " .. ok # Testing various otion/value assignemnt notations\n";
+}
+else {
+  print "19 not ok\n";
+  print STDERR "19 not ok\n";
+}