diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 4f314c04b..94b0dd4ab 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -936,6 +936,9 @@ Other changes:
 
  * <path> can now optionally cache its contents.
 
+ * <property> can now specify values as nested text.
+   Bugzilla Report 32917.
+
 Changes from Ant 1.7.0 TO Ant 1.7.1
 =============================================
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/property.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/property.html
index f6ed34149..b37f27a32 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/property.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/property.html
@@ -31,9 +31,10 @@
 resource) in the project.  Properties are case sensitive.</p>
  Properties are immutable: whoever sets a property first freezes it for the
  rest of the build; they are most definitely not variables.
-<p>There are six ways to set properties:</p>
+<p>There are seven ways to set properties:</p>
 <ul>
   <li>By supplying both the <i>name</i> and <i>value</i> attribute.</li>
+  <li>By supplying the <i>name</i> and nested text.</li>
   <li>By supplying both the <i>name</i> and <i>refid</i> attribute.</li>
   <li>By setting the <i>file</i> attribute with the filename of the property
     file to load. This property file has the format as defined by the file used
@@ -86,8 +87,8 @@ SYSTEM).
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">value</td>
     <td valign="top">the value of the property.</td>
-    <td valign="middle" align="center" rowspan="3">One of these, when using the
-       name attribute</td>
+    <td valign="middle" align="center" rowspan="3">One of these or
+       nested text, when using the name attribute</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">location</td>
@@ -165,6 +166,9 @@ href="../using.html#path">PATH like structure</a> and can also be set via a nest
 <pre>  &lt;property name=&quot;foo.dist&quot; value=&quot;dist&quot;/&gt;</pre>
 <p>sets the property <code>foo.dist</code> to the value &quot;dist&quot;.</p>
 
+<pre>  &lt;property name=&quot;foo.dist&quot;&gt;dist&lt;/property&gt;</pre>
+<p>sets the property <code>foo.dist</code> to the value &quot;dist&quot;.</p>
+
 <pre>  &lt;property file=&quot;foo.properties&quot;/&gt;</pre>
 <p>reads a set of properties from a file called &quot;foo.properties&quot;.</p>
 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Property.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Property.java
index 0eb3bb151..81f621e10 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Property.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Property.java
@@ -44,13 +44,17 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.property.ResolvePropertyMap;
  * resource) in the project.  </p>
  * Properties are immutable: whoever sets a property first freezes it for the
  * rest of the build; they are most definitely not variable.
- * <p>There are five ways to set properties:</p>
+ * <p>There are seven ways to set properties:</p>
  * <ul>
  *   <li>By supplying both the <i>name</i> and <i>value</i> attribute.</li>
+ *   <li>By supplying the <i>name</i> and nested text.</li>
  *   <li>By supplying both the <i>name</i> and <i>refid</i> attribute.</li>
  *   <li>By setting the <i>file</i> attribute with the filename of the property
  *     file to load. This property file has the format as defined by the file used
  *     in the class java.util.Properties.</li>
+ *   <li>By setting the <i>url</i> attribute with the url from which to load the
+ *     properties. This url must be directed to a file that has the format as defined
+ *     by the file used in the class java.util.Properties.</li>
  *   <li>By setting the <i>resource</i> attribute with the resource name of the
  *     property file to load. This property file has the format as defined by the
  *     file used in the class java.util.Properties.</li>
@@ -172,6 +176,20 @@ public class Property extends Task {
         setValue((Object) value);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set a (multiline) property as nested text.
+     * @param msg the text to append to the output text
+     * @since Ant 1.8.0
+     */
+    public void addText(String msg) {
+        msg = getProject().replaceProperties(msg);
+        String currentValue = getValue();
+        if (currentValue != null) {
+            msg = currentValue + msg;
+        }
+        setValue(msg);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Get the property value.
      * @return the property value
diff --git a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/property-test.xml b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/property-test.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d1fe3644b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/property-test.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
+<project default="antunit" xmlns:au="antlib:org.apache.ant.antunit">
+
+  <import file="../antunit-base.xml" />
+
+  <target name="testNestedText">
+    <property name="foo">bar</property>
+    <au:assertPropertyEquals name="foo" value="bar"/>
+  </target>
+</project>