Tag file attributes are defined in tag files directive so they can't contains cdata sections. In order to be able to use html formatting the only way is to use encoded start tags, like: The default xslt for taglibdoc however keeps the tags escaped, so there is no way to get a formatted output. The 2.4 version of the plugin will ship with a modified xslt that will unescape "description" and "example" attributes for tag files.