diff --git a/src/org/apache/xalan/transformer/TransformerImpl.java b/src/org/apache/xalan/transformer/TransformerImpl.java
index de2e394..588f438 100644
--- a/src/org/apache/xalan/transformer/TransformerImpl.java
+++ b/src/org/apache/xalan/transformer/TransformerImpl.java
@@ -889,7 +889,7 @@
 
         if (null != method)
           m_outputFormat = new OutputProperties(method);
-        else
+        else if(m_outputFormat==null)
           m_outputFormat = new OutputProperties();
       }