If trim_mode is passed a String containing one or more of the following modifiers, ERB will adjust its code generation as listed: % enables Ruby code processing for lines beginning with % <> omit newline for lines starting with <% and ending in %> > omit newline for lines ending in %> If ERB.new(...., 0, "<>") is used in the parser then you can do something like: <% principals.each do |val| %> Foo <%= val %> Bar. <% end %> and for the cases that you only need the value: <% principals.each do |val| %> <%= val %> <% end %> or <% principals.each do |val| %><%= val + "\n" %><% end %> A change like this could break existing templates though :( Kostas Kostas