diff --git a/conf/okular.kcfg b/conf/okular.kcfg
index 4a2aaf308..ac82028c7 100644
--- a/conf/okular.kcfg
+++ b/conf/okular.kcfg
@@ -237,5 +237,35 @@
     </code>
     <default code="true">userString</default>
   </entry>
+  <entry key="AnnotationTools" type="StringList">
+    <code>
+      QStringList annotationTools;
+      // load the default tool list from the 'xml tools definition' file
+      QFile infoFile( KStandardDirs::locate("data", "okular/tools.xml") );
+      if ( infoFile.exists() &amp;&amp; infoFile.open( QIODevice::ReadOnly ) )
+      {
+          QDomDocument doc;
+          if ( doc.setContent( &amp;infoFile ) )
+          {
+              QDomElement toolsDefinition = doc.elementsByTagName("annotatingTools").item( 0 ).toElement();
+               // create the annotationTools list from the XML dom tree
+              QDomNode toolDescription = toolsDefinition.firstChild();
+              while ( toolDescription.isElement() )
+              {
+                  QDomElement toolElement = toolDescription.toElement();
+                  if ( toolElement.tagName() == "tool" )
+                  {
+                      QDomDocument temp;
+                      temp.appendChild( temp.importNode( toolElement, true) );
+                      // add each &lt;tool&gt;...&lt;/tool&gt; as XML string
+                      annotationTools &lt;&lt; temp.toString(-1);
+                  }
+                  toolDescription = toolDescription.nextSibling();
+              }
+          }
+      }
+    </code>
+    <default code="true">annotationTools</default>
+  </entry>
  </group>
 </kcfg>
diff --git a/conf/settings.kcfgc b/conf/settings.kcfgc
index 5e2ec95f8..9f2109ff2 100644
--- a/conf/settings.kcfgc
+++ b/conf/settings.kcfgc
@@ -6,4 +6,5 @@ Mutators=true
 Singleton=true
 Visibility=OKULAR_EXPORT
 IncludeFiles=core/okular_export.h, settings_core.h
+SourceIncludeFiles=kstandarddirs.h,qdom.h
 MemberVariables=dpointer
diff --git a/ui/pageviewannotator.cpp b/ui/pageviewannotator.cpp
index 9cf6adb0f..f53931243 100644
--- a/ui/pageviewannotator.cpp
+++ b/ui/pageviewannotator.cpp
@@ -621,47 +621,46 @@ void PageViewAnnotator::reparseConfig()
 {
     m_items.clear();
 
-    // load the tools from the 'xml tools definition' file. store the tree internally.
-    QFile infoFile( KStandardDirs::locate("data", "okular/tools.xml") );
-    if ( infoFile.exists() && infoFile.open( QIODevice::ReadOnly ) )
+    // Read tool list from configuration. It's a list of XML <tool></tool> elements
+    const QStringList userTools = Okular::Settings::annotationTools();
+
+    // Populate m_toolsDefinition
+    QDomDocument doc;
+    m_toolsDefinition = doc.createElement( "annotatingTools" );
+    foreach ( const QString &toolXml, userTools )
     {
-        QDomDocument doc( "annotatingTools" );
-        if ( doc.setContent( &infoFile ) )
-        {
-            m_toolsDefinition = doc.elementsByTagName("annotatingTools").item( 0 ).toElement();
+        QDomDocument entryParser;
+        if ( entryParser.setContent( toolXml ) )
+            m_toolsDefinition.appendChild( doc.importNode( entryParser.documentElement(), true ) );
+        else
+            kWarning() << "Skipping malformed tool XML in AnnotationTools setting";
+    }
 
-            // create the AnnotationToolItems from the XML dom tree
-            QDomNode toolDescription = m_toolsDefinition.firstChild();
-            while ( toolDescription.isElement() )
+    // Create the AnnotationToolItems from the XML dom tree
+    QDomNode toolDescription = m_toolsDefinition.firstChild();
+    while ( toolDescription.isElement() )
+    {
+        QDomElement toolElement = toolDescription.toElement();
+        if ( toolElement.tagName() == "tool" )
+        {
+            AnnotationToolItem item;
+            item.id = toolElement.attribute("id").toInt();
+            item.text = i18n( toolElement.attribute( "name" ).toUtf8() );
+            item.pixmap = toolElement.attribute("pixmap");
+            QDomNode shortcutNode = toolElement.elementsByTagName( "shortcut" ).item( 0 );
+            if ( shortcutNode.isElement() )
+                item.shortcut = shortcutNode.toElement().text();
+            QDomNodeList engineNodeList = toolElement.elementsByTagName( "engine" );
+            if ( engineNodeList.size() > 0 )
             {
-                QDomElement toolElement = toolDescription.toElement();
-                if ( toolElement.tagName() == "tool" )
-                {
-                    AnnotationToolItem item;
-                    item.id = toolElement.attribute("id").toInt();
-                    item.text = i18n( toolElement.attribute( "name" ).toUtf8() );
-                    item.pixmap = toolElement.attribute("pixmap");
-                    QDomNode shortcutNode = toolElement.elementsByTagName( "shortcut" ).item( 0 );
-                    if ( shortcutNode.isElement() )
-                        item.shortcut = shortcutNode.toElement().text();
-                    QDomNodeList engineNodeList = toolElement.elementsByTagName( "engine" );
-                    if ( engineNodeList.size() > 0 )
-                    {
-                        QDomElement engineEl = engineNodeList.item( 0 ).toElement();
-                        if ( !engineEl.isNull() && engineEl.hasAttribute( "type" ) )
-                            item.isText = engineEl.attribute( "type" ) == QLatin1String( "TextSelector" );
-                    }
-                    m_items.push_back( item );
-                }
-                toolDescription = toolDescription.nextSibling();
+                QDomElement engineEl = engineNodeList.item( 0 ).toElement();
+                if ( !engineEl.isNull() && engineEl.hasAttribute( "type" ) )
+                    item.isText = engineEl.attribute( "type" ) == QLatin1String( "TextSelector" );
             }
+            m_items.push_back( item );
         }
-        else
-            kWarning() << "AnnotatingTools XML file seems to be damaged";
-        infoFile.close();
+        toolDescription = toolDescription.nextSibling();
     }
-    else
-        kWarning() << "Unable to open AnnotatingTools XML definition";
 }
 
 PageViewAnnotator::~PageViewAnnotator()
diff --git a/ui/pageviewannotator.h b/ui/pageviewannotator.h
index 078e0de14..50c4af737 100644
--- a/ui/pageviewannotator.h
+++ b/ui/pageviewannotator.h
@@ -40,11 +40,12 @@ class PageView;
  * to this class that performs a rough visual representation of what the
  * annotation will become when finished.
  *
- * "data/tools.xml" is the file that contains Annotations/Engine association
+ * m_toolsDefinition is a DOM object that contains Annotations/Engine association
  * for the items placed in the toolbar. The XML is parsed (1) when populating
  * the toolbar and (2)after selecting a toolbar item, in which case an Ann is
  * initialized with the values in the XML and an engine is created to handle
- * that annotation.
+ * that annotation. m_toolsDefinition is created in reparseConfig according to
+ * user configuration.
  */
 class PageViewAnnotator : public QObject
 {