Index: channels/configwin.py
==================================================================
--- channels/configwin.py
+++ channels/configwin.py
@@ -192,15 +192,15 @@
             doc = re.sub("(?<=\S) *\n(?! *\n)", " ", doc)
         return doc
 
     # Put config widgets into channels/features configwin notebooks
     def add_channels(self, id=None, w=None, label=None, color=None, image=None, align=20):
-        self.plugin_options.pack_start(uikit.wrap(self.widgets, id, w, label, color, image, align))
+        self.plugin_options.pack_start(uikit.wrap(self.widgets, id, w, label, color, image, align, label_markup=1))
 
     # Separate tab for non-channel plugins
     def add_features(self, id=None, w=None, label=None, color=None, image=None, align=20):
-        self.feature_options.pack_start(uikit.wrap(self.widgets, id, w, label, color, image, align))
+        self.feature_options.pack_start(uikit.wrap(self.widgets, id, w, label, color, image, align, label_markup=1))
 
 
     # save config
     def save(self, widget):
         self.save_config(conf.__dict__, "config_")

Index: pluginconf.py
==================================================================
--- pluginconf.py
+++ pluginconf.py
@@ -270,10 +270,11 @@
 # Stubs out name, value, type, description if absent.
 #
 def plugin_meta_config(str):
     config = []
     for entry in rx.config.findall(str):
+        entry = entry[0] or entry[1]
         opt = {
             "type": None,
             "name": None,
             "description": "",
             "value": None
@@ -295,11 +296,11 @@
     hash = re.compile(r"""(^ {0,4}# *)""", re.M)
     keyval = re.compile(r"""
         ^([\w-]+):(.*$(?:\n(?![\w-]+:).+$)*)      # plain key:value lines
     """, re.M | re.X)
     config = re.compile(r"""
-        [\{\<] (.+?) [\}\>]                    # JSOL/YAML scheme {...} dicts
+        \{ (.+?) \} | \< (.+?) \>              # JSOL/YAML scheme {...} dicts
     """, re.X)
     options = re.compile(r"""
         ["':$]?   (\w*)  ["']?                 # key or ":key" or '$key'
         \s* [:=] \s*                           # "=" or ":"
      (?:  "  ([^"]*)  "