diff --git a/src/components/annotations/common_defaults.js b/src/components/annotations/common_defaults.js
index 62be89b24af..db58ad09b9f 100644
--- a/src/components/annotations/common_defaults.js
+++ b/src/components/annotations/common_defaults.js
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ module.exports = function handleAnnotationCommonDefaults(annIn, annOut, fullLayo
     var borderWidth = coerce('borderwidth');
     var showArrow = coerce('showarrow');
 
-    coerce('text', showArrow ? ' ' : 'new text');
+    coerce('text', showArrow ? ' ' : fullLayout._dfltTitle.annotation);
     coerce('textangle');
     Lib.coerceFont(coerce, 'font', fullLayout.font);
 
diff --git a/src/plots/plots.js b/src/plots/plots.js
index a54052cf16e..bec27b731ab 100644
--- a/src/plots/plots.js
+++ b/src/plots/plots.js
@@ -300,7 +300,8 @@ plots.supplyDefaults = function(gd) {
         plot: _(gd, 'Click to enter Plot title'),
         x: _(gd, 'Click to enter X axis title'),
         y: _(gd, 'Click to enter Y axis title'),
-        colorbar: _(gd, 'Click to enter Colorscale title')
+        colorbar: _(gd, 'Click to enter Colorscale title'),
+        annotation: _(gd, 'new text')
     };
     newFullLayout._traceWord = _(gd, 'trace');