diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 60d34e1ad7..b3326c6742 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -733,7 +733,7 @@ endif()
 
 option(BOUT_BUILD_DOCS "Build the documentation" OFF)
 if (BOUT_BUILD_DOCS)
-  add_subdirectory(manual EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+  add_subdirectory(manual)
 endif()
 
 
diff --git a/manual/CMakeLists.txt b/manual/CMakeLists.txt
index c8e22b1dcf..b5224440bf 100644
--- a/manual/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/manual/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,13 @@ find_package(Sphinx REQUIRED)
 set(BOUT_SPHINX_SOURCE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/sphinx)
 set(BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/docs)
 
+set(env_command
+    ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E env
+    PYTHONPATH=${BOUT_PYTHONPATH}:$ENV{PYTHONPATH}
+)
+
 add_custom_target(sphinx-html
+  COMMAND ${env_command}
   COMMAND ${SPHINX_EXECUTABLE} -b html ${BOUT_SPHINX_SOURCE} ${BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD}
   COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo "Generated HTML docs in file://${BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD}/index.html"
   WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
@@ -14,20 +20,19 @@ add_custom_target(sphinx-html
 )
 
 add_custom_target(sphinx-pdf
+  COMMAND ${env_command}
   COMMAND ${SPHINX_EXECUTABLE} -M latexpdf ${BOUT_SPHINX_SOURCE} ${BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD}
   COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo "Generated PDF docs in file://${BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD}"
   WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
   COMMENT "Generating PDF documentation with Sphinx in ${BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD}"
 )
 
-set_target_properties(sphinx-html sphinx-pdf PROPERTIES
-  ENVIRONMENT PYTHONPATH=${BOUT_PYTHONPATH}:$ENV{PYTHONPATH}
-)
-
-add_custom_target(docs ALL)
+add_custom_target(docs)
 add_dependencies(docs sphinx-html)
 
 install(DIRECTORY ${BOUT_SPHINX_BUILD}/
   DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_DATAROOTDIR}/doc/bout++/
+  EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL
+  COMPONENT docs
   PATTERN .* EXCLUDE
 )