diff --git a/src/gui/qgsexpressionbuilderwidget.cpp b/src/gui/qgsexpressionbuilderwidget.cpp
index 7e39efe786ed..9ecbf7996c93 100644
--- a/src/gui/qgsexpressionbuilderwidget.cpp
+++ b/src/gui/qgsexpressionbuilderwidget.cpp
@@ -80,6 +80,11 @@ QgsExpressionBuilderWidget::QgsExpressionBuilderWidget( QWidget *parent )
   {
     tab_2->setEnabled( false );
   }
+
+  // select the first item in the function list 
+  // in order to avoid a blank help widget
+  QModelIndex firstItem = mProxyModel->index( 0, 0, QModelIndex() );
+  expressionTree->setCurrentIndex( firstItem );
 }