...

What else changes when I switch over to columns? Do I need a whole new environment within columns?

\setupwhitespace should be enough but you could define a new environment and hide the setup in the environment file.

\definestartstop [mycolumns] [before=\startcolumns, after=\stopcolumns, commands=\directsetup{mycolumn:setup}]

\startsetups mycolumn:setup

\setupwhitespace[...]

\stopsetups

\starttext

\startmycolumns

text text text ...

\stopmycolumns

\stoptext

Wolfgang

Thanks again - that's just what I was looking for! Richard