Hello,
In TeXLive 2011, the following works correctly (footnotes in column) -- although the footnote rule does not appear, as I have noted in another post.
In the current beta (29 nov 2011), the footnotes span the whole page and are run over by the body text columns. The footnote rule also continues to be absent.
(The actual format I'm using has more formatting options but this is minimal).
%%------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------%%
\definecolumnset[body][n=2,balancing=yes]
\setupnote[footnote]
[location=columns]
\setupnotedefinition[footnote]
[location=left]
\starttext
\startcolumnset[body]
\definecolumnset[body][n=2,balancing=yes]
\def\myfootnotecommand#1{\hbox to 1.5em{#1}}% space for footnote number.
\setupnote[footnote]
[location=columns,
way=bytext,
command=\myfootnotecommand,
rule=on]
\setupnotedefinition[footnote]
[location=left]
\starttext
\startcolumnset[body]
Some text\footnote{Cluster, aggregate, outline, summarize, itemize, review, dip into, flip through, browse, glance into, leaf through, skim, refine, enumerate, glean, synopsize, winnow the wheat from the chaff and separate the sheep from the goats.}
\dorecurse{5}{\input tufte \par}
\stopcolumnset
\stoptext
\dorecurse{5}{\input tufte \par}
\stopcolumnset
\stoptext
%%------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------%%
--
Peter Park Nelson
peter.park.nelson@gmail.com