diff --git a/dist/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.min.js b/dist/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.min.js
index f0079180..92f92db2 100644
--- a/dist/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.min.js
+++ b/dist/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.min.js
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-/*! Widget: sort2Hash */
-!function(a){"use strict";var b=a.tablesorter||{},c={init:function(a,b){var d,e,f,g,h,i=c.getSort(a,b);if(i){for(d=i.split(b.sort2Hash_separator),f=d.length,i=[],e=0;f>e;e++)g=d[e++],h=d[e],"undefined"!=typeof h&&i.push([g,h]);i.length&&(a.sortList=i)}a.$table.on("sortEnd.sort2hash",function(){c.setHash(a,b)})},getTableId:function(b,c){return c.sort2Hash_tableId||b.table.id||"table"+a("table").index(b.$table)},getSort:function(a,b,d){var e=c.getTableId(a,b).replace(/[\[]/,"\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\]"),f=new RegExp("[\\#&]"+e+"=([^&]*)").exec(window.location.hash);return null===f?"":(d&&(window.location.hash=window.location.hash.replace("&"+e+"="+f[1],"")),f[1])},setHash:function(a,b){var d=c.getTableId(a,b)+"=",e=a.sortList||[],f=e.length;f&&(c.getSort(a,b,!0),window.location.hash+=(window.location.hash.length?"":b.sort2Hash_hash)+"&"+d+[].concat.apply([],e).join(b.sort2Hash_separator))}};b.addWidget({id:"sort2Hash",options:{sort2Hash_hash:"#",sort2Hash_separator:"-",sort2Hash_tableId:null},init:function(a,b,d,e){c.init(d,e)},remove:function(a,b){b.$table.off("sortEnd.sort2hash")}})}(jQuery);
\ No newline at end of file
+/*! Widget: sort2Hash - updated 7/21/2015 (v2.22.4) */
+!function(a){"use strict";var b=a.tablesorter||{},c={init:function(a,d){var e=b.hasWidget(a.table,"saveSort"),f=c.getSort(a,d);(f&&!e||f&&e&&d.sort2Hash_overrideSaveSort)&&c.processHash(a,d,f),a.$table.on("sortEnd.sort2hash",function(){c.setHash(a,d)})},getTableId:function(b,c){return c.sort2Hash_tableId||b.table.id||"table"+a("table").index(b.$table)},getSort:function(a,b,d){var e,f=c.getTableId(a,b).replace(/[\[]/,"\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\]"),g=new RegExp("[\\#&]"+f+"=([^&]*)").exec(window.location.hash);return null===g?"":(e=c.processSort(a,b,g[1]),d?(window.location.hash=window.location.hash.replace("&"+f+"="+g[1],""),e):g[1])},processHash:function(a,b,c){for(var d,e,f,g,h=decodeURI(c||"").split(b.sort2Hash_separator),i=0,j=h.length,k=[];j>i;)e=h[i++],g=parseInt(e,10),(isNaN(g)||g>a.columns)&&(d=new RegExp("("+e+")","i"),e=a.$headers.filter(function(b,c){return d.test(a.$headers[b].textContent||"")}).attr("data-column")),f=h[i++],"undefined"!=typeof f&&(isNaN(f)&&(f=f.indexOf(b.sort2Hash_directionText[1])>-1?1:0),k.push([e,f]));k.length&&(a.sortList=k)},processSort:function(b,c){var d,e,f,g,h=[],i=b.sortList||[],j=i.length;for(d=0;j>d;d++)f=i[d][0],c.sort2Hash_useHeaderText&&(e=a.trim(b.$headerIndexed[f].text()),"function"==typeof c.sort2Hash_processHeaderText&&(e=c.sort2Hash_processHeaderText(e,config,f)),f=e),h.push(f),g=c.sort2Hash_directionText[i[d][1]],h.push(g);return h.join(c.sort2Hash_separator)},setHash:function(a,b){var d=c.processSort(a,b);d.length&&(c.getSort(a,b,!0),window.location.hash+=(window.location.hash.length?"":b.sort2Hash_hash)+"&"+c.getTableId(a,b)+"="+encodeURI(d))}};b.addWidget({id:"sort2Hash",priority:30,options:{sort2Hash_hash:"#",sort2Hash_separator:"-",sort2Hash_tableId:null,sort2Hash_useHeaderText:!1,sort2Hash_processHeaderText:null,sort2Hash_directionText:[0,1],sort2Hash_overrideSaveSort:!1},init:function(a,b,d,e){c.init(d,e)},remove:function(a,b){b.$table.off("sortEnd.sort2hash")}})}(jQuery);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/example-widget-sort-to-hash.html b/docs/example-widget-sort-to-hash.html
index e1a9c189..0587ea0b 100644
--- a/docs/example-widget-sort-to-hash.html
+++ b/docs/example-widget-sort-to-hash.html
@@ -18,20 +18,29 @@
 	<!-- Tablesorter: required -->
 	<link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/theme.blue.css">
 	<script src="../js/jquery.tablesorter.js"></script>
+	<script src="../js/jquery.tablesorter.widgets.js"></script>
 	<script src="../js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.js"></script>
 
 <script id="js">$(function() {
 
 	$( 'table' ).tablesorter({
 		theme: 'blue',
-		widgets: [ 'zebra', 'sort2Hash' ],
+		widgets: [ 'zebra', 'sort2Hash', 'saveSort' ],
 		widgetOptions : {
 			// hash prefix
-			sort2Hash_hash      : '#',
+			sort2Hash_hash             : '#',
 			// don't '#' or '=' here
-			sort2Hash_separator : ',',
+			sort2Hash_separator        : ',',
 			// this option > table ID > table index on page
-			sort2Hash_tableId   : null
+			sort2Hash_tableId          : null,
+			// if true, show header cell text instead of a zero-based column index
+			sort2Hash_useHeaderText    : false,
+			// allow processing of text if sort2Hash_useHeaderText: true
+			sort2Hash_processHeaderText : null, // function( text, config, columnIndex ) {},
+			// direction text shown in the URL e.g. [ 'asc', 'desc' ]
+			sort2Hash_directionText    : [ 0, 1 ], // default values
+			// if true, override saveSort widget sort, if used & stored sort is available
+			sort2Hash_overrideSaveSort : true
 		}
 	});
 
@@ -69,7 +78,7 @@
 			</div>
 			<table class="tablesorter-blue options">
 				<thead>
-					<tr><th>Option</th><th>Default</th><th>Description</th></tr>
+					<tr><th>Option</th><th>Default</th><th class="sorter-false">Description</th></tr>
 				</thead>
 				<tbody>
 
@@ -108,6 +117,64 @@
 						</td>
 					</tr>
 
+					<tr id="sort2hash_useheadertext">
+						<td><a href="#" class="permalink">sort2Hash_useHeaderText</a></td>
+						<td><code>false</code></td>
+						<td>
+							If <code>true</code>, text from the header is used instead of a zero-based column index.
+							<div class="collapsible">
+							<br>
+							Please be aware that if the column text contains spaces or special characters, they will be encoded in the URL. So, <code>"First &#xa3;$&#x20ac;&#x00a4;&#x00a5;&#xa2; Name"</code> will become <code>"First%20%C2%A3$%E2%82%AC%C2%A4%C2%A5%C2%A2%20Name"</code>. This would make the hash very difficult to read.
+							<p>Further processing of this header cell text can be done using the <code>sort2Hash_processHeaderText</code> function.</p>
+							</div>
+						</td>
+					</tr>
+
+					<tr id="sort2hash_processheadertext">
+						<td><a href="#" class="permalink">sort2Hash_processHeaderText</a></td>
+						<td><code>null</code></td>
+						<td>
+							If the <code>sort2Hash_useHeaderText</code> option is <code>true</code>, a function here will further process the header cell text.
+							<div class="collapsible">
+							<br>
+							Use this function to perform any processing on the header cell text, as desired.
+							<p>At this point, the header cell text has not been encoded.</p>
+							<p>Here is one example:</p>
+							<pre class="prettyprint lang-js">sort2Hash_processHeaderText : function( text, config, columnIndex ) {
+  // remove all non-alphanumeric characters (including spaces)
+  return text.replace( /[^a-z0-9]/gi, '' );
+}</pre>
+							Another example:
+							<pre class="prettyprint lang-js">sort2Hash_processHeaderText : function( text, config, columnIndex ) {
+  // completely custom text to use for the hash
+  // this method assumes that the table layout is constant
+  // (i.e. columns are not added, removed or rearranged)
+  return [ 'first', 'last', 'age', 'total', 'disc', 'date' ][ columnIndex ];
+}</pre>
+							</div>
+						</td>
+					</tr>
+
+					<tr id="sort2hash_directiontext">
+						<td><a href="#" class="permalink">sort2Hash_directionText</a></td>
+						<td><code>[ 0, 1 ]</code></td>
+						<td>
+							Set the direction text shown in the URL.
+							<div class="collapsible">
+							<br>
+							Only the first two values will be used from this array. The first value is assigned to ascending sorts and the second is assigned to descending sorts.
+							<p>Use the option as follows:</p>
+							<pre class="prettyprint lang-js">sort2Hash_directionText : [ 'asc', 'desc' ]</pre>
+							<span class="label warning">*NOTE*</span> When converting the hash into a value, if the direction hash does not match the second value (<code>'desc'</code> in the example above), it will fallback to an ascending sort no matter what text in contained within the first value.
+							</div>
+						</td>
+					</tr>
+
+					<tr id="sort2hash_overridesavesort">
+						<td><span class="permalink">sort2Hash_overrideSaveSort</span></td>
+						<td><code>false</code></td>
+						<td>if <code>true</code>, the hash sort will override any stored sort (saveSort widget).</td>
+					</tr>
 
 				</tbody>
 			</table>
diff --git a/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.js b/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.js
index 003f483a..6f574792 100644
--- a/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.js
+++ b/js/widgets/widget-sort2Hash.js
@@ -1,26 +1,13 @@
-/*! Widget: sort2Hash */
+/*! Widget: sort2Hash - updated 7/21/2015 (v2.22.4) */
 ;( function( $ ) {
 'use strict';
 var ts = $.tablesorter || {},
 s2h = {
 	init : function( c, wo ) {
-		var arry, indx, len, column, direction,
+		var hasSaveSort = ts.hasWidget( c.table, 'saveSort' ),
 			sort = s2h.getSort( c, wo );
-		if (sort) {
-			arry = sort.split( wo.sort2Hash_separator );
-			len = arry.length;
-			sort = [];
-			for ( indx = 0; indx < len; indx++ ) {
-				column = arry[ indx++ ];
-				direction = arry[ indx ];
-				// ignore unpaired values
-				if ( typeof direction !== 'undefined' ) {
-					sort.push( [ column, direction ] );
-				}
-			}
-			if ( sort.length ) {
-				c.sortList = sort;
-			}
+		if ( ( sort && !hasSaveSort ) || ( sort && hasSaveSort && wo.sort2Hash_overrideSaveSort ) ) {
+			s2h.processHash( c, wo, sort );
 		}
 		c.$table.on( 'sortEnd.sort2hash', function() {
 			s2h.setHash( c, wo );
@@ -34,39 +21,101 @@ s2h = {
 	},
 	getSort : function( c, wo, clean ) {
 		// modified original code from http://www.netlobo.com/url_query_string_javascript.html
-		var name = s2h.getTableId( c, wo ).replace( /[\[]/, '\\[' ).replace( /[\]]/, '\\]' ),
+		var value,
+			name = s2h.getTableId( c, wo ).replace( /[\[]/, '\\[' ).replace( /[\]]/, '\\]' ),
 			sort = ( new RegExp( '[\\#&]' + name + '=([^&]*)' ) ).exec( window.location.hash );
 		if ( sort === null ) {
 			return '';
 		} else {
+			value = s2h.processSort( c, wo, sort[ 1 ] );
 			if ( clean ) {
 				window.location.hash = window.location.hash.replace( '&' + name + '=' + sort[ 1 ], '' );
+				return value;
 			}
 			return sort[ 1 ];
 		}
 	},
+	// convert 'first%20name,asc,last%20name,desc' into [[0,0], [1,1]]
+	processHash : function( c, wo, sortHash ) {
+		var regex, column, direction, temp,
+			arry = decodeURI( sortHash || '' ).split( wo.sort2Hash_separator ),
+			indx = 0,
+			len = arry.length,
+			sort = [];
+		while ( indx < len ) {
+			// column index or text
+			column = arry[ indx++ ];
+			temp = parseInt( column, 10 );
+			// ignore wo.sort2Hash_useHeaderText setting &
+			// just see if column contains a number
+			if ( isNaN( temp ) || temp > c.columns ) {
+				regex = new RegExp( '(' + column + ')', 'i' );
+				column = c.$headers.filter( function( index, cell ) {
+					return regex.test( c.$headers[ index ].textContent || '' );
+				}).attr( 'data-column' );
+			}
+			direction = arry[ indx++ ];
+			// ignore unpaired values
+			if ( typeof direction !== 'undefined' ) {
+				// convert text to 0, 1
+				if ( isNaN( direction ) ) {
+					// default to ascending sort
+					direction = direction.indexOf( wo.sort2Hash_directionText[ 1 ] ) > -1 ? 1 : 0;
+				}
+				sort.push( [ column, direction ] );
+			}
+		}
+		if ( sort.length ) {
+			c.sortList = sort;
+		}
+	},
+
+	// convert [[0,0],[1,1]] to 'first%20name,asc,last%20name,desc'
+	processSort : function( c, wo ) {
+		var index, txt, column, direction,
+			sort = [],
+			arry = c.sortList || [],
+			len = arry.length;
+		for ( index = 0; index < len; index++ ) {
+			column = arry[ index ][ 0 ];
+			if ( wo.sort2Hash_useHeaderText ) {
+				txt = $.trim( c.$headerIndexed[ column ].text() );
+				if ( typeof wo.sort2Hash_processHeaderText === 'function' ) {
+					txt = wo.sort2Hash_processHeaderText( txt, config, column );
+				}
+				column = txt;
+			}
+			sort.push( column );
+			direction = wo.sort2Hash_directionText[ arry[ index ][ 1 ] ];
+			sort.push( direction );
+
+		}
+		// join with separator
+		return sort.join( wo.sort2Hash_separator );
+	},
 	setHash : function( c, wo ) {
-		var hash, indx,
-			arry = [],
-			tableId = s2h.getTableId( c, wo ) + '=',
-			sort = c.sortList || [],
-			len = sort.length;
-		if ( len ) {
-			s2h.getSort( c, wo, true ); // remove hash
+		var arry = [],
+			sort = s2h.processSort( c, wo );
+		if ( sort.length ) {
+			// remove old hash
+			s2h.getSort( c, wo, true );
 			window.location.hash += ( window.location.hash.length ? '' : wo.sort2Hash_hash ) +
-				 '&' + tableId +
-				// flatten array, then join with separator
-				[].concat.apply( [], sort ).join( wo.sort2Hash_separator );
+				 '&' + s2h.getTableId( c, wo ) + '=' + encodeURI( sort );
 		}
 	}
 };
 
 ts.addWidget({
 	id: 'sort2Hash',
+	priority: 30, // after saveSort
 	options: {
-		sort2Hash_hash      : '#', // hash prefix
-		sort2Hash_separator : '-', // don't '#' or '=' here
-		sort2Hash_tableId   : null // this option > table ID > table index on page
+		sort2Hash_hash              : '#',      // hash prefix
+		sort2Hash_separator         : '-',      // don't '#' or '=' here
+		sort2Hash_tableId           : null,     // this option > table ID > table index on page,
+		sort2Hash_useHeaderText     : false,    // use column header text (true) or zero-based column index
+		sort2Hash_processHeaderText : null,     // function( text, config, columnIndex ) {},
+		sort2Hash_directionText     : [ 0, 1 ], // [ 'asc', 'desc' ],
+		sort2Hash_overrideSaveSort  : false,    // if true, override saveSort widget if saved sort available
 	},
 	init: function(table, thisWidget, c, wo) {
 		s2h.init( c, wo );