> [It is surprising how one is unable to find something, except when
 > one has got already the answer. :-) ]

yes, isn't it? and this after all the nights i spend on writing that .dtx
file docu :-)

 > Well, forget my previous message, and change istead the attribute
 > declaratios:
 >
 > \DeclareTemplate{contentsobject}{JB1}{7}{
 >   pre-action       =+f0 []         \COpre@action,
 >  ...

tried that and will send sample instance file in a separate message. it does
work now but i'm still a bit worried about the mixture of global and local
settings. especially code like

 >   label-width      =+l  [15pt]     \@tempdima,

seems dangerous since other code might rely on the fact that \@tempdima is a
local register (bad coding but ...)

anyway with a few exceptions it does now seem to work.

frank