Consider the following: \starttext Text before. \startitemize[1,nowhite] \item item 1 \item item 2 \startitemize[5,nowhite] \item sub-item 1 \item sub-item 2 \stopitemize \item item 3 \stopitemize Text after. \stoptext Notwithstanding the "nowhite" options, there is a blank line before sub-item 1, which I do not want. Oddly (to me), if I change the first "nowhite" to "packed", the space before sub-item 1 goes away, but then I get undesired space before and after the out itemization. Q1: Can someone explain the Zen of this? That is, why does the blank line before sub-item 1 go away with "packed", but not "nowhite"? Poking around on the internet, I find that if I leave the "nowhite"s, but precede "Text before." with \unprotect \c_strc_itemgroups_spacing_mode=1 % 0 works too, but 2 doesn't \protect then I get the spacing I want. Q2: \c_strc_itemgroups_spacing_mode seems to be an undocumented "feature". Is there a "documented" way of making the unwanted blank line go away, without introducing unwanted blank lines before and after the outer itemize list? Thanks. Jim