Thanks Taco.

>I am somewhat confused myself as to why this is generally considered to  be
so confusing.

What's most confusing are the:

- wiki layout explanation at http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Layout
- \showsetups output
- excursion manual, table 33.2 page 74
- main manual page 24
- \setuplayout texshow page

each one listing the same thing similarly or differently using either
arguments, parameters
and/or variables, the latter of which for the most have nothing to do with
the \setuplayout
arguments ( or are these parameters, or variables ? )

Best,
Alan

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com> wrote:

> Alan Stone wrote:
> >
> > CanItBeAnyMoreConfusingText ?
>
>  From left to right, you have:
>
>   (left)edge
>   (left)edgedistance
>   (left)margin
>   (left)margindistance
>   width
>   (right)margindistance
>   (right)margin
>   (right)edgedistance
>   (right)edge
>
> The location of all this on the paper is defined by backspace, which
> gives the distance between the appropriate (left or right) edge of the
> text width and the physical paper edge.
>
> Similar logic applies in the vertical direction. \showlayout will
> give the current values and keys (put it after \starttext, it generates
> four pages of typeset information).  I am somewhat confused myself as to
> why this is generally considered to  be so confusing.
>
> In vertical mode, it goes like this
>
>    top
>    topdistance
>    header
>    headerdistance
>    textheight
>    footerdistance
>    footer
>    bottomdistance
>    bottom
>
> "height" sets up the dimension that controls the inner five areas
> (header ... footer). "topspace" is the distance between the vertical
> top edge of the paper and the top of "header".
>
> You can put \showlayout after \starttext. It will generate four pages
> of settings (because of double-sided ness).
>
> Best wishes,
> Taco
>