Sorry, maybe the last mail was a bit confusing. So I make another try - hopefully clearer: The problem was when defining an unusual size for my footnotes

\setupfootnotes[bodyfont=8.5pt, ... ] I get an amazing amount of messages bodyfont: bodyfont XXpt is defined (can be better done global) with XX being various sizes. Which makes processing real slow...

So the original question is: What is meant by "global defining"? Where should I write a "global" definition and how does it look like? On this, Hans gave me the advice:

\setupbodyfont [...] : global settings, document level, main text as well as headers footers etc \switchtobodyfont[...] : local, inside a box or in page stream, but no headers etc

I was not sure how to use this for footnotes, so I asked:

Well, yes - I use setupbodyfont for defining the main text \setupbodyfont[AGaramondOldStyle,10.5pt] But what would be the syntax when I want to define the main text's *and* the footnote's font with setupbodyfont?? It's not \setupbodyfont[AGaramondOldStyle,10.5pt,8.8pt] ?

And then Hans wrote:

\setupfootnotes[bodyfont=8.8pt] % or [bodyfont={whatever,you,want,10pt}]

But this is the initial problem (see top here). The circle is closed... Does this mean there is actually no answer to my problem? Thank you for assistance, Steffen