diff --git a/source/gui/CDropDown.cpp b/source/gui/CDropDown.cpp
index c2b18db7d8..686033af14 100644
--- a/source/gui/CDropDown.cpp
+++ b/source/gui/CDropDown.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* Copyright (C) 2016 Wildfire Games.
+/* Copyright (C) 2017 Wildfire Games.
  * This file is part of 0 A.D.
  *
  * 0 A.D. is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -347,7 +347,7 @@ InReaction CDropDown::ManuallyHandleEvent(const SDL_Event_* ev)
 					int diff = 0;
 					for (size_t j = 0; j < m_InputBuffer.length(); ++j)
 					{
-						diff = abs(pList->m_Items[i].GetOriginalString().LowerCase()[j] - (int)m_InputBuffer[j]);
+						diff = std::abs(pList->m_Items[i].GetRawString().LowerCase()[j] - (int)m_InputBuffer[j]);
 						if (diff == 0)
 							indexOfDifference = j+1;
 						else
diff --git a/source/gui/GUItext.h b/source/gui/GUItext.h
index 0cbccf1583..784d459317 100644
--- a/source/gui/GUItext.h
+++ b/source/gui/GUItext.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* Copyright (C) 2015 Wildfire Games.
+/* Copyright (C) 2017 Wildfire Games.
  * This file is part of 0 A.D.
  *
  * 0 A.D. is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -290,6 +290,11 @@ public:
 	 */
 	const CStrW& GetOriginalString() const { return m_OriginalString; }
 
+	/**
+	 * Get String, stripped of tags
+	 */
+	const CStrW& GetRawString() const { return m_RawString; }
+
 	/**
 	 * Generate Text Call from specified range. The range
 	 * must span only within ONE TextChunk though. Otherwise