diff --git a/examples/user_guide/03-Customizing_Plots.ipynb b/examples/user_guide/03-Customizing_Plots.ipynb
index 1035d42d45..8bbc9dff02 100644
--- a/examples/user_guide/03-Customizing_Plots.ipynb
+++ b/examples/user_guide/03-Customizing_Plots.ipynb
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@
     "    plot:  {interpolation: 'steps-mid'}\n",
     "```\n",
     "\n",
-    "The reason HoloViews does not encourage the use of yaml is that yaml to literals and cannot express richer objects that can be used in options such as ``Cycle`` or ``Palette``."
+    "The reason HoloViews does not encourage the use of yaml is that yaml is limited to literals and cannot express richer objects that can be used in options such as ``Cycle`` or ``Palette``."
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -416,7 +416,7 @@
     "\n",
     "#### ``%%opts``\n",
     "\n",
-    "As shown in the examples above, customizes a particular HoloViews output displayed in a code cell. This application is not global and persists for that object which means settings stay in place if the object is re-displayed. Only accepts the string specification format. All cell magics need to appear *above* any code in the cells they are used in and cannot be used if there is no code in the cell. Only accepts the string specification syntax.\n",
+    "As shown in the examples above, customizes a particular HoloViews output displayed in a code cell. This application is not global and persists for that object which means settings stay in place if the object is re-displayed. Only accepts the string specification format. All cell magics need to appear *above* any code in the cells they are used in and cannot be used if there is no code in the cell. Only accepts the string specification syntax. Only applied to the output of the cell when it is displayed by IPython, and thus will not apply to objects exported or displayed using a separate mechanism before the cell completes, and does not affect objects created but not displayed in the output of the cell.\n",
     "\n",
     "#### ``%opts``\n",
     "\n",
diff --git a/holoviews/core/spaces.py b/holoviews/core/spaces.py
index 9a0bb6b385..9ea540f906 100644
--- a/holoviews/core/spaces.py
+++ b/holoviews/core/spaces.py
@@ -576,15 +576,13 @@ def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
             # KeyError is caught separately because it is used to signal
             # invalid keys on DynamicMap and should not warn
             raise
-        except:
+        except Exception as e:
             posstr = ', '.join(['%r' % el for el in self.args]) if self.args else ''
             kwstr = ', '.join('%s=%r' % (k,v) for k,v in self.kwargs.items())
             argstr = ', '.join([el for el in [posstr, kwstr] if el])
-            message = ("Exception raised in callable '{name}' of type '{ctype}'.\n"
+            message = ("Callable raised \"{e}\".\n"
                        "Invoked as {name}({argstr})")
-            self.warning(message.format(name=self.name,
-                                        ctype = type(self.callable).__name__,
-                                        argstr=argstr))
+            self.warning(message.format(name=self.name, argstr=argstr, e=repr(e)))
             raise
 
         if hashed_key is not None: