I might need a little more help just to understand how best to adapt this to my situation: One thing is clear: I was attempting to use a 'list' variable, and I can see why that was an error, since it is headertexts, not TOC that I want to influence. But let me simplify my situation: You seem to suggest initially that I could use \structureuservariable (or \structurevariable) instead, especially since I already have a variable to call on, e.g \startchapter[title={My title}][author={A. uthor}]. But in the example you then gave, you made no use of either of these. My current setting is: \setupheadertexts [{\hfill\getmarking[chapter]\hfill}][] [{\hfill\documentvariable{metadata:title}\hfill}][] which gives me the book title centred on verso pages, and the chapter title centred on recto pages. All I want to do is to have the chapter contributors' name for each chapter instead of the chapter title. So why can't I create a setups along the lines of: \startsetups[contributor] \getmarking[\structureuservariable{author}] \stopsetups Then just swap 'chapter' in \setupheadertexts, with 'contributor'? I tried it but it doesn't work. I thought it would be logical. Clearly I'm wrong but don't appreciate why. Julian On 18/3/22 18:52, Henning Hraban Ramm via ntg-context wrote:
The *list* variables work only in lists.
There’s also \structurevariable and \structureuservariable.
Make sure you use setups for the header, otherwise the variable gets expanded only once at the beginning.
Like in:
\setuppagenumbering[alternative=doublesided] \setupheadertexts[] % empty \setupheadertexts[\setups{text right}][][][\setups{text left}]
\startsetups[text right] \rlap{\pagenumber} \hfill \getmarking[chapter] \hfill \llap{Un Nom} \stopsetups
\startsetups[text left] \rlap{Una Person} \hfill \getmarking[section] \hfill \llap{\pagenumber} \stopsetups