One way to reach this, is to set the row height of every single table line to the default interline space of ConTeXt. The table rows now sync with the grid (same height), but behind the table you are again out of sync. You can use \syncronizegrid to fix this. hmm, some problems (see %Pj ) %%%%% \setuplayout[grid=yes] %P1 %% all docs is in grid mode, %%%%% but the request was only for tables \showgrid \showstruts
\starttext \input tufte \setupTABLE[r][each][height=\the\baselineskip] % default linespacing in ConTeXt \setupTABLE[c][1,2,4][width=.2\textwidth] \setupTABLE[c][3][width=.4\textwidth] \setupTABLE[frame=on] \blank \bTABLE \bTR \bTD Axxx \eTD \bTD yyyy \eTD \bTD [row=2] first entry with\\ more text \eTD %P2 %%% you must enter row=2manually %%%%% maybe can be calculate by a macro \bTD zzz \eTD \eTR % \bTR \bTD \eTD \bTD \eTD % \bTD \eTD % [row=2] \bTD \eTD \eTR % \bTR \bTD Bxxx \eTD \bTD yyyy \eTD \bTD next entry \eTD \bTD zzz \ruledvbox to 3cm{ jkjfd kjhsdkfjhsd }\eTD %P3 %% ugly cell -- some try-and-errors to find k such as row=k %%%%% is good \eTR \eTABLE \synchronizegrid \blank \input tufte \stoptext %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% One strategy could be consider both the ways showed. Also I found an interestring document at http://www.datapat.de/101.pdf luigi