(This appears to be the same issue which was raised by Alexandros Frantzis in October 2008; see the thread at http://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context%40ntg.nl/msg32125.html. No resolution was proposed at that time, and the problem still exists.)

Extra whitespace occurs before itemizations and tabulations (and quite possibly other structures) which appear immediately following an in-margin heading. The following example illustrates this.

\setuplayout [backspace=7cm,leftmargin=6cm]

\setuphead   [chapter][]

\setuphead   [subsection]
             [alternative=normal,command=,distance=1em]

\setuphead   [subsubsection]
             [alternative=normal,command=,distance=1em]

\setuphead   [section][distance=0pt,
              alternative=text,
              command=\MarginHead]

\define[2]\MarginHead{\inmargin{#1 #2}}

\startbuffer[Item]
  \startitemize
    \item Item
    \item Idem
  \stopitemize
\stopbuffer
\startbuffer[Table]
  \starttabulate[|l|l|]
    \FL\NC Entry \NC one \NC\NR
       \NC Entry \NC two \NC\NR\LL
  \stoptabulate
\stopbuffer

\starttext

\chapter{Itemize}

\section{No extra whitespace}
With text here there is no extra whitespace before the itemization.
\getbuffer[Item]

\subsection{No extra whitespace}
With text here there is no extra whitespace before the itemization.
\getbuffer[Item]

\section{Extra whitespace}
\getbuffer[Item]
With no text before the itemization there is extra space after the heading.

\subsection{No extra whitespace}
\getbuffer[Item]
With no text before the itemization there is extra space after the heading.

\chapter{Tabulate}

\section{No extra whitespace}
With text here there is no extra whitespace before the table.
\getbuffer[Table]

\subsection{No extra whitespace}
With text here there is no extra whitespace before the table.
\getbuffer[Table]

\section{Extra whitespace}
\getbuffer[Table]
With no text before the table there is extra space after the heading.

\subsection{No extra whitespace}
\getbuffer[Table]
With no text before the table there is extra space after the heading.

\stoptext

Is this unresolvable? Like Alexandros, I have tried many of the options that looked appropriate, but nothing seems to work.

--
Rik Kabel