diff --git a/oletools/oletimes.py b/oletools/oletimes.py
index 0dd5aa8..0a4a0a7 100644
--- a/oletools/oletimes.py
+++ b/oletools/oletimes.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ http://www.decalage.info/python/oletools
 
 #=== LICENSE =================================================================
 
-# oletimes is copyright (c) 2013-2016, Philippe Lagadec (http://www.decalage.info)
+# oletimes is copyright (c) 2013-2017, Philippe Lagadec (http://www.decalage.info)
 # All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
@@ -48,8 +48,9 @@ http://www.decalage.info/python/oletools
 # 2014-11-30 v0.03 PL: - improved output with prettytable
 # 2016-07-20 v0.50 SL: - added Python 3 support
 # 2016-09-05       PL: - added main entry point for setup.py
+# 2017-05-03 v0.51 PL: - fixed absolute imports (issue #141)
 
-__version__ = '0.50'
+__version__ = '0.51dev7'
 
 #------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # TODO:
@@ -60,9 +61,22 @@ __version__ = '0.50'
 
 #=== IMPORTS =================================================================
 
-import sys, datetime
-from .thirdparty import olefile
-from .thirdparty.prettytable import prettytable
+import sys, os, datetime
+
+# IMPORTANT: it should be possible to run oletools directly as scripts
+# in any directory without installing them with pip or setup.py.
+# In that case, relative imports are NOT usable.
+# And to enable Python 2+3 compatibility, we need to use absolute imports,
+# so we add the oletools parent folder to sys.path (absolute+normalized path):
+_thismodule_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))
+# print('_thismodule_dir = %r' % _thismodule_dir)
+_parent_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(_thismodule_dir, '..'))
+# print('_parent_dir = %r' % _thirdparty_dir)
+if not _parent_dir in sys.path:
+    sys.path.insert(0, _parent_dir)
+
+from oletools.thirdparty import olefile
+from oletools.thirdparty.prettytable import prettytable
 
 
 # === MAIN ===================================================================