On 29 Jan 2022, at 14:45, Joel via ntg-context wrote:

I am writing a workbook that contains a materials list in front of some craft activities.

I found that simply displaying a bulleted list can take up lots of space on the page, so instead put the list in three columns. The problem is, if there is an item with a somewhat long description, it can be split across columns. See the example below:

\starttext \startcolumns[n=3]% \startitemize[1]% \item pizza cutter \item a word processor (or notebook paper) \stopitemize% \stopcolumns% \stoptext

In the example, it split the second item across the columns.

How can I create columns that don't allow the item to split across them?

Have you tried \startitemize[columns,three] instead of \startcolumns? There are examples in the manual on page 16 http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/ma-cb-en.pdf The spacing can be adjusted as well if the default is too big. — Bruce Horrocks Hampshire, UK