Hi again, since I often need row and column spanning, I have tried to use natural tables to produce good looking tables (booktabs-like, as discussed in the recent thread). I think it will be possible to achieve what I want, but I have some open points. For those interested, I have attached a file showing what I have devised to get the job done. The code is not very elegant, and the parameters controlling spacing and rule thickness are just for testing. But the main idea becomes clear: I use dummy rows with a height determined by rule thickness and vertical separation. The rules are drawn by metapost. Any comments and suggestions are very welcome. Now, my questions/remarks: - How to control spacing between table rows and columns? I can't simply set the offset, since I must be able to set vertical and horizontal spacing independently. - To have each cell entry centered horizontally and vertically, I have to say \setupTABLE[row][each][align={middle,lohi}]. I think it should also be possible to do this via \setupTABLE[align={middle,lohi}] which currently has no effect. - I think I will come to the point where I want to define macros of my own wich can take a key=value list of arguments with the ability to set defaults using a setup command. Can someone give me a pointer where to look in order to learn how this is done? Thanks for your help and comments, Eckhart