Thanks Donald, > Like much of original LaTeX, it is sloppy coding and profligate > waste of TeX features. Then, we could say \parshape is here for "historical reasons". > different) for a different list. The current definition is extremely > obscure, ugly, and fragile in its redefinition of \par, needed to > reset \parshape settings every paragraph. And for this very reason I was expecting an answer like "well, this way one can do the following wonderful things...", but it seems the reasons are quite simpler ;-). Javier