diff --git a/R/messages.R b/R/messages.R
index c75afa95..ba16795f 100644
--- a/R/messages.R
+++ b/R/messages.R
@@ -45,4 +45,13 @@ message_nothing_to_show = function(any_groups) {
 	} else {
 		message("[nothing to show] no layers defined")
 	}
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+message_wrapstack = function(horizontal = TRUE) {
+	if (horizontal) {
+		message("[facets] use tm_facets_hstack() instead of tm_facets_wrap() to put the legends next to and aligned with the facets")
+	} else {
+		message("[facets] use tm_facets_vstack() instead of tm_facets_wrap() to put the legends next to and aligned with the facets")
+	}
+	
+}
diff --git a/R/process_meta.R b/R/process_meta.R
index ea75b429..529a75cf 100644
--- a/R/process_meta.R
+++ b/R/process_meta.R
@@ -74,12 +74,17 @@ preprocess_meta = function(o, cdt) {
 		
 		
 		# in case there are per-facet legends but no no marginal legends, and nrows or ncols equals 1, place them outside (to do this, set them to all-facet here, change legend.position.all below accordingly, and finally determine legend position in step4_plot)
-		if (legend.present.auto[4] && (!any(legend.present.auto[2:3])) && (type == "stack")) {
-			per_facet_wrap_outside = TRUE
-			legend.present.auto[1] = TRUE
-			legend.present.auto[4] = FALSE
+		if (legend.present.auto[4] && (!any(legend.present.auto[2:3]))) {
+			
+			if (type == "stack") {
+				legend.present.auto[1] = TRUE
+				legend.present.auto[4] = FALSE
+				set_to_stack_message = FALSE
+			} else {
+				set_to_stack_message = TRUE
+			}
 		} else {
-			per_facet_wrap_outside = FALSE
+			set_to_stack_message = FALSE
 		}
 		
 		
@@ -510,6 +515,7 @@ process_meta = function(o, d, cdt, aux) {
 				
 				nrows = ceiling(n / ncols)
 			}
+			if ((nrows == 1 || ncols == 1) && set_to_stack_message) message_wrapstack(nrows == 1)
 		}
 		
 		#overall scale down factor for facets
diff --git a/R/step4_plot.R b/R/step4_plot.R
index 647143bb..5b00493c 100644
--- a/R/step4_plot.R
+++ b/R/step4_plot.R
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ step4_plot = function(tm, vp, return.asp, show, knit, args) {
 	aux = tm$aux
 	cmp = tm$cmp
 	
-	if ("bbx" %in% names(tmx[[o$main]])) {
+	if (length(tmx) && ("bbx" %in% names(tmx[[o$main]]))) {
 		bbm = tmx[[o$main]]$bbx
 	} else {
 		bbm = NULL