diff --git a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/CodeCompletionWindow.cs b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/CodeCompletionWindow.cs
index c960494dde..edf94c2d9c 100644
--- a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/CodeCompletionWindow.cs
+++ b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/CodeCompletionWindow.cs
@@ -82,6 +82,11 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.XmlEditor
 			declarationViewWindow.ShowDeclarationViewWindow();
 			control.Focus();
 			CodeCompletionListViewSelectedItemChanged(this, EventArgs.Empty);
+						
+			if (completionDataProvider.DefaultIndex >= 0) {
+				codeCompletionListView.SelectIndex(completionDataProvider.DefaultIndex);
+			}
+			
 			if (completionDataProvider.PreSelection != null) {
 				CaretOffsetChanged(this, EventArgs.Empty);
 			}
diff --git a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/XmlCompletionDataProvider.cs b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/XmlCompletionDataProvider.cs
index cd18c07023..4824c3cc5b 100644
--- a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/XmlCompletionDataProvider.cs
+++ b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Project/Src/XmlCompletionDataProvider.cs
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.XmlEditor
 			this.schemaCompletionDataItems = schemaCompletionDataItems;
 			this.defaultSchemaCompletionData = defaultSchemaCompletionData;
 			this.defaultNamespacePrefix = defaultNamespacePrefix;
+			DefaultIndex = 0;
 		}
 		
 		public override ImageList ImageList {
diff --git a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/Completion/FirstCompletionListItemSelectedTestFixture.cs b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/Completion/FirstCompletionListItemSelectedTestFixture.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..503284d118
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/Completion/FirstCompletionListItemSelectedTestFixture.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+// <file>
+//     <copyright see="prj:///doc/copyright.txt"/>
+//     <license see="prj:///doc/license.txt"/>
+//     <owner name="Matthew Ward" email="mrward@users.sourceforge.net"/>
+//     <version>$Revision$</version>
+// </file>
+
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Windows.Forms;
+using ICSharpCode.TextEditor;
+using ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Gui.CompletionWindow;
+using ICSharpCode.XmlEditor;
+using NUnit.Framework;
+using XmlEditor.Tests.Utils;
+
+namespace XmlEditor.Tests.Completion
+{
+	/// <summary>
+	/// Tests that the first item in the completion list view is selected by
+	/// default. When coding in C# the default is to not selected the
+	/// first item in the completion list. With XML there tends to not
+	/// be very many items in the completion list so selecting the first
+	/// one can often make editing quicker.
+	/// </summary>
+	[TestFixture]
+	public class FirstCompletionListItemSelectedTestFixture
+	{
+		XmlCompletionDataProvider provider;
+		ICompletionData selectedCompletionData;
+		ICompletionData[] completionDataItems;
+		
+		[TestFixtureSetUp]
+		public void SetUpFixture()
+		{
+			Form parentForm = new Form();
+			parentForm.CreateControl();
+			
+			XmlSchemaCompletionData schema = new XmlSchemaCompletionData(ResourceManager.GetXhtmlStrictSchema());
+			XmlSchemaCompletionDataCollection schemas = new XmlSchemaCompletionDataCollection();
+			schemas.Add(schema);
+			provider = new XmlCompletionDataProvider(schemas, schema, String.Empty);
+			TextEditorControl textEditor = new TextEditorControl();
+			completionDataItems = provider.GenerateCompletionData(@"C:\Test.xml", textEditor.ActiveTextAreaControl.TextArea, '<');
+			using (ICSharpCode.XmlEditor.CodeCompletionWindow completionWindow = ICSharpCode.XmlEditor.CodeCompletionWindow.ShowCompletionWindow(parentForm, textEditor, @"C:\Test.xml", provider, '<')) {
+				CodeCompletionListView listView = (CodeCompletionListView)completionWindow.Controls[0];
+				selectedCompletionData = listView.SelectedCompletionData;
+				completionWindow.Close();
+			}
+		}
+		
+		/// <summary>
+		/// Sanity check to make sure that we actually have some completion
+		/// data items from the xml completion data provider.
+		/// </summary>
+		[Test]
+		public void HasGeneratedCompletionDataItems()
+		{
+			Assert.IsNotNull(completionDataItems);
+			Assert.IsTrue(completionDataItems.Length > 0);
+		}
+		
+		/// <summary>
+		/// Default index should be zero so that the first item in the
+		/// list view is selected.
+		/// </summary>
+		[Test]
+		public void DefaultIndex()
+		{
+			Assert.AreEqual(0, provider.DefaultIndex);
+		}
+		
+		[Test]
+		public void SelectedCompletionDataExists()
+		{
+			Assert.IsNotNull(selectedCompletionData);
+		}
+		
+		/// <summary>
+		/// First item returned from completion list view should correspond
+		/// to the first completion item returned from the xml completion 
+		/// data provider after those items have been sorted.
+		/// </summary>
+		[Test]
+		public void SelectedCompletionDataMatches()
+		{
+			List<ICompletionData> items = new List<ICompletionData>(completionDataItems);
+			items.Sort();
+			Assert.AreEqual(items[0].Text, selectedCompletionData.Text);
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/XmlEditor.Tests.csproj b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/XmlEditor.Tests.csproj
index ee92afec0a..d61ef1c807 100644
--- a/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/XmlEditor.Tests.csproj
+++ b/src/AddIns/DisplayBindings/XmlEditor/Test/XmlEditor.Tests.csproj
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
   </ItemGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
     <Compile Include="AssemblyInfo.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="Completion\FirstCompletionListItemSelectedTestFixture.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Schema\SingleElementSchemaTestFixture.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Schema\ElementWithAttributeSchemaTestFixture.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Schema\NestedElementSchemaTestFixture.cs" />
@@ -164,6 +165,7 @@
     <None Include="app.config" />
   </ItemGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
+    <Folder Include="Completion" />
     <Folder Include="Schema\" />
     <Folder Include="Parser\" />
     <Folder Include="Paths\" />