diff --git a/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.cpp b/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.cpp
index ab7240fa3d65b939c948cc398af0df7361982e16..4e2689ffdc01d4599126132d51716c275ff45fd2 100644
--- a/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.cpp
@@ -55,28 +55,23 @@ static QTextCharFormat commentFormat()
     return settings.toTextCharFormat(TextEditor::C_COMMENT);
 }
 
-// Highlighter for git submit messages. Make the first line bold, indicates
-// comments as such (retrieving the format from the text editor) and marks up
-// keywords (words in front of a colon as in 'Task: <bla>').
-
-class GitSubmitHighlighter : QSyntaxHighlighter {
-public:
-    explicit GitSubmitHighlighter(QTextEdit *parent);
-    void highlightBlock(const QString &text);
-
-private:
-    enum State { None = -1, Header, Other };
-    const QTextCharFormat m_commentFormat;
-    QRegExp m_keywordPattern;
-    const QChar m_hashChar;
-};
-
 GitSubmitHighlighter::GitSubmitHighlighter(QTextEdit * parent) :
-    QSyntaxHighlighter(parent),
-    m_commentFormat(commentFormat()),
-    m_keywordPattern(QLatin1String("^[\\w-]+:")),
-    m_hashChar(QLatin1Char('#'))
+    TextEditor::SyntaxHighlighter(parent)
+{
+    initialize();
+}
+
+GitSubmitHighlighter::GitSubmitHighlighter(TextEditor::BaseTextDocument *parent) :
+    TextEditor::SyntaxHighlighter(parent)
+{
+    initialize();
+}
+
+void GitSubmitHighlighter::initialize()
 {
+    m_commentFormat = commentFormat();
+    m_keywordPattern.setPattern(QLatin1String("^[\\w-]+:"));
+    m_hashChar = QLatin1Char('#');
     QTC_CHECK(m_keywordPattern.isValid());
 }
 
diff --git a/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.h b/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.h
index 62bc8eda734362bba1c0bf258e537dfe97037b17..3872786ebea270e05be677fadd36ce5eb3be0ae0 100644
--- a/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.h
+++ b/src/plugins/git/gitsubmiteditorwidget.h
@@ -33,8 +33,12 @@
 #include "ui_gitsubmitpanel.h"
 #include "gitsettings.h"
 
+#include <texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.h>
 #include <vcsbase/submiteditorwidget.h>
 
+#include <QRegExp>
+#include <QSyntaxHighlighter>
+
 QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
 class QValidator;
 QT_END_NAMESPACE
@@ -89,6 +93,25 @@ private:
     bool m_isInitialized;
 };
 
+// Highlighter for git submit messages. Make the first line bold, indicates
+// comments as such (retrieving the format from the text editor) and marks up
+// keywords (words in front of a colon as in 'Task: <bla>').
+
+class GitSubmitHighlighter : public TextEditor::SyntaxHighlighter
+{
+public:
+    explicit GitSubmitHighlighter(QTextEdit *parent);
+    explicit GitSubmitHighlighter(TextEditor::BaseTextDocument *parent);
+    void highlightBlock(const QString &text);
+
+    void initialize();
+private:
+    enum State { None = -1, Header, Other };
+    QTextCharFormat m_commentFormat;
+    QRegExp m_keywordPattern;
+    QChar m_hashChar;
+};
+
 } // namespace Internal
 } // namespace Git