diff --git a/tabellio/config/utils.py b/tabellio/config/utils.py
index 1dd427b..397ebdb 100644
--- a/tabellio/config/utils.py
+++ b/tabellio/config/utils.py
@@ -38,7 +38,11 @@ def get_topics_dict():
         return {}
     topics = {}
     for line in settings.topics.splitlines():
-        id, term = line.strip().split('|')
+        if line.count('|') == 1:
+            id, term = line.strip().split('|')
+        else:
+            term = line.strip()
+            id = term.encode('ascii', 'replace')
         topics[id] = (term, normalizer.normalize(term).lower())
     return topics