User:Sciurus/sandbox
LIKE EVERYTHING IN THIS SANDBOX, THIS IS ONLY A DRAFT AND SHOULD NOT BE USED YET.
start-stop, setup, and define
There are three main types of commands in ConTeXt:
- start-stop: To apply something to some text, enclose the text in
\startsomething
\stopsomething
. - setup: To configure something for the rest of the document, use
\setupsomething
. - define: To create a named customization of something, use
\definesomething
.
Many commands don’t fit into one of these types, but here are some that do. Throughout this list startsomething
is shorthand for startsomething
stopsomething
.
Structure
These commands relate to the structure of a document.
- \starttext: In a typical document, the text to be typeset is enclosed by this. \definetext and \setuptext are defined but have little documentation and don’t appear to be used much.
- \startdocument and \setupdocument: If customization is wanted, the text to be typeset can be enclosed by \startdocument instead of \starttext. The command \startdocument allows for document metadata and can be configured with \setupdocument.
- {{cmd|definehead} and \setuphead: The generic name for a section of a document in head, so these commands allow you to define and customize your own sections. The main built-in sections are: part, chapter, section, subsection, subsubsection, and their numberless counterparts. See the Titles page for further details.
- \setupheader/\setupfooter: These can be used to customize the headers and footers of a document, including whether or not anything should be displayed in them.
- \setupheadertexts/\setupfootertexts: If the headers and footers are set to display text, these commands allow you to customize what those texts are.
- \definemakeup, \setupmakeup, and \startmakeup: A makeup is a page with a different formatting than the rest of the pages in the document (such as a title page or colophon). Use these commands to make and customize the formatting of such a page.
- \definesectionblock and \setupsectionblock: A section block is a section of the document with its own page numbering format (such as the built-in section blocks
frontpart
,bodypart
,backpart
, andappendix
). You can use these commands to define and customize section blocks. - \definestartstop and \setupstartstop: Use these commands to define and customize your own start-stop regions.
- \setupblock and \setupblock: Use these commands to define and customize your own formats for blocks of text. These are somewhat similar to start-stop regions, but there is one major difference: there commands such as \hideblocks to turn off the display of blocks. For other such commands, see the documentation for \setupblock.
- \definelist and \setuplist: Use these to define and customize your own types of lists.
- \definelistalternative and \setuplistalternative: These commands allow you to define and customize options for the
alternative
key in \setuplist. - \definedescription and \setupdescription: With these commands, you can define and customize your own descriptions. For more details about descriptions, see the Description page.
- \definecombinedlist and \setupcombinedlist: Use these to define and custsomize combined lists. A combined list is a generalization of the table of contents. See the Table of contents page for further details.
- \definepagebreak: This allows you to define a configuration for page breaks, as used in many different commands (including \pagebreak and \page.
Text formatting and decoration
These commands relate to how text is displayed, without repositioning the text (much).
- \definehighlight and \setuphighlight
- \defineframed, \setupframed, and \startframed
- \defineframedtext and \setupframedtext
- \definemathframed and \setupmathframed
- \defineblank and \setupblank
- \definehspace and \setuphspace
- \setupwhitespace
- \setupinterlinespace
- \definelines and \setuplines
- \definetyping and \setuptyping
- \definetype and \setuptype
Layout and Design
These commands relate to how text is laid out on the page, and possibly involve moving or positioning the text.
- \definepapersize and \setuppapersize
- \definelayout and \setuplayout
- \setuppagenumbering
- \definelayer and \setuplayer
- \definecolor and \setupcolors
- \definecolorgroup
- \definepalet and \setuppalet
- \defineoverlay
- \definecombination and \setupcombination
Utilities
These commands have various functions that don’t relate directly to text formatting and design.