Usage: class Blog < ActiveRecord::Base rendered_column :body, :use_erb=>true rendered_column :summary, :format=>'markdown' end By default, this will try to save the resulting HTML in the AR fields 'rendered_body' and 'rendered_summary'. You can override that by setting :prefix and :postfix. Defaults are: :prefix=>'rendered_' :postfix=>'', :format=>'textile' :use_erb=>false