diff --git a/src/Buffer.cpp b/src/Buffer.cpp
index c0723bea05..618b7d18a1 100644
--- a/src/Buffer.cpp
+++ b/src/Buffer.cpp
@@ -3317,7 +3317,13 @@ void Buffer::getSourceCode(odocstream & os, string const format,
 			   << "\n\n";
 		}
 		// output paragraphs
-		if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::HTML) {
+		if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::LYX) {
+			Paragraph const & par = text().paragraphs()[par_begin];
+			ostringstream ods;
+			depth_type dt = par.getDepth();
+			par.write(ods, params(), dt);
+			os << from_utf8(ods.str());
+		} else if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::HTML) {
 			XHTMLStream xs(os);
 			setMathFlavor(runparams);
 			xhtmlParagraphs(text(), *this, xs, runparams);
@@ -3347,7 +3353,16 @@ void Buffer::getSourceCode(odocstream & os, string const format,
 		else if (output == OnlyBody)
 			os << _("Preview body");
 		os << "\n\n";
-		if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::HTML) {
+		if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::LYX) {
+			ostringstream ods;
+			if (output == FullSource)
+				write(ods);
+			else if (output == OnlyPreamble)
+				params().writeFile(ods);
+			else if (output == OnlyBody)
+				text().write(ods);
+			os << from_utf8(ods.str());
+		}	else if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::HTML) {
 			writeLyXHTMLSource(os, runparams, output);
 		} else if (runparams.flavor == OutputParams::TEXT) {
 			if (output == OnlyPreamble) {
diff --git a/src/BufferParams.cpp b/src/BufferParams.cpp
index 817403f0de..bfee4cff3f 100644
--- a/src/BufferParams.cpp
+++ b/src/BufferParams.cpp
@@ -2180,6 +2180,8 @@ OutputParams::FLAVOR BufferParams::getOutputFlavor(string const format) const
 		result = OutputParams::HTML;
 	else if (dformat == "text")
 		result = OutputParams::TEXT;
+	else if (dformat == "lyx")
+		result = OutputParams::LYX;
 	else {
 		// Try to determine flavor of default output format
 		vector<string> backs = backends();
diff --git a/src/OutputParams.h b/src/OutputParams.h
index 15736f667d..d3c2921b46 100644
--- a/src/OutputParams.h
+++ b/src/OutputParams.h
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ public:
 		XETEX,
 		XML,
 		HTML,
-		TEXT
+		TEXT,
+		LYX
 	};
 	
 	enum MathFlavor {
diff --git a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiViewSource.cpp b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiViewSource.cpp
index 286055c407..f4f197d1de 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiViewSource.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiViewSource.cpp
@@ -209,9 +209,6 @@ void ViewSourceWidget::updateDefaultFormat()
 			LYXERR0("Can't find format for backend " << format << "!");
 			continue;
 		} 
-		if (fmt->name() == "lyx")
-			// we can't presently display the LyX format itself
-			continue;
 
 		QString const pretty = qt_(fmt->prettyname());
 		QString const qformat = toqstr(format);
diff --git a/src/insets/InsetExternal.cpp b/src/insets/InsetExternal.cpp
index 54b04b3946..ea51664978 100644
--- a/src/insets/InsetExternal.cpp
+++ b/src/insets/InsetExternal.cpp
@@ -752,6 +752,9 @@ void InsetExternal::validate(LaTeXFeatures & features) const
 	case OutputParams::TEXT:
 		format = "text";
 		break;
+	case OutputParams::LYX:
+		format = "lyx";
+		break;
 	}
 	external::Template::Formats::const_iterator cit =
 		et.formats.find(format);