I forgot to add the basic example, with neither for section nor for summary an option set in \setuphead[..] for alternative. So, read this as example 0: = test5.pdf Example 0: \defineblank[sprong][.5cm] \definehead[summary][section] \setuphead[section][number=no,style=bold,before={\blank[sprong]},after=,indentnext=no] \setuphead[summary][number=no,style=bold,before=,after={\blank[sprong]},beforesection={\noindentation\page\starttextbackground[SummaryBackground]},aftersection={\stoptextbackground\page}] \setupwhitespace[none] \setupindenting[yes, small, next] \definetextbackground [SummaryBackground] [frame=off,frameoffset=0pt, background=color, backgroundcolor=gray, backgroundoffset=2ex] \starttext \section{First sentence. Second sentence.}\input zapf \summary{Summary}\input zapf \stoptext Example 0 => Example 1 Setting the alternative=text for section also causes a change in behaviour of the summary section.