diff --git a/gramps2/ChangeLog b/gramps2/ChangeLog
index 31dd7fe4c..78ce7d53b 100644
--- a/gramps2/ChangeLog
+++ b/gramps2/ChangeLog
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 	* test/runtest.sh: Add txt format and family_group report.
 	* test/impex.sh: Add import/export test set.
 	* example/gramps/example.gramps: Correct errors.
+	* src/BaseDoc.py (SheetParser.startElement): Tolerate missing
+	tmargin and bmargin (when reading older style files).
 
 2005-11-22  Don Allingham  <don@gramps-project.org>
 	* src/docgen/AbiWord2Doc.py: fix spacing for top and bottom margin
diff --git a/gramps2/src/BaseDoc.py b/gramps2/src/BaseDoc.py
index de4823b9b..f7c6dc2ee 100644
--- a/gramps2/src/BaseDoc.py
+++ b/gramps2/src/BaseDoc.py
@@ -993,8 +993,13 @@ class SheetParser(handler.ContentHandler):
             self.p.set_right_margin(Utils.gfloat(attrs['rmargin']))
             self.p.set_left_margin(Utils.gfloat(attrs['lmargin']))
             self.p.set_first_indent(Utils.gfloat(attrs['first']))
-            self.p.set_top_margin(Utils.gfloat(attrs['tmargin']))
-            self.p.set_bottom_margin(Utils.gfloat(attrs['bmargin']))
+            try:
+                # This is needed to read older style files
+                # lacking tmargin and bmargin
+                self.p.set_top_margin(Utils.gfloat(attrs['tmargin']))
+                self.p.set_bottom_margin(Utils.gfloat(attrs['bmargin']))
+            except KeyError:
+                pass
             self.p.set_padding(Utils.gfloat(attrs['pad']))
             self.p.set_alignment(int(attrs['align']))
             self.p.set_right_border(int(attrs['rborder']))