You can see from your log that context --pdftext is running the MKII macros and context is running MKIV macros. The two systems are very different, MKII being "frozen" and MKIV having evolved in some ways significantly. It is not a question of TeX engines, but rather of entire systems. But it sounds like you want to be using an itemize or enumeration rather than a description. \startitemize [n] \startitem one \startitemize [a] \startitem two \stopitem \startitem three \stopitem \stopitemize \stopitem \startitem four \startitemize [a,continue] \startitem five \stopitem \startitem six \startitemize \startitem seven \stopitem \startitem eight \stopitem \startitem nine \stopitem \stopitemize \stopitem \stopitemize \stopitem \startitem ten \stopitem \stopitemize Alan