I am not sure if it is possible to write a macro for what I want to do.

In South Africa the de Villiers-Pama genealogical numbering system is used. It starts with the proginetor's children as b's, the second generations c's, the third d's and so forth.

The example below shows this person as the h (8th) generation with the genealogical number b3c3d2e2f15g5h2.

I want this number to appear in the header of the document, if this person is the first genealogical number at the top of the page.

What I have done is to give the long genealogical number a "body text" style with colour white, size 1 (for the example I made it 5), so that you cannot see the long number, but it will appear in the header.

If the next number does not follow on the previous one, then it must go back to the number which preceded the next number, i.e. as in the example, the f15 genearation stops with g5h2i2 and the next line starts with f16. There are no more numbers after g5, h2 and i2.

The next generation should read g1 b3c3d2e2f16g1. The g1 will always be visible, but the long number will be hidden.

Is it possible to do this with a macro or must I keep typing it in? I will appreciate any help.


h2 b3c3d2e2f15g5h2 Petrus Johannes * 26.08.1957
i1 b3c3d2e2f15g5h2i1 Petronella Margaretha * 01.12.1980
i2 b3c3d2e2f15g5h2i2 Madeleen
f16 b3c3d2e2f16 Simon Johannes Jacob * 03.09.1880 ≈ Winburg 17.10.1880
g1 Petrus Johannes * 14.06.1905 † 26.11.1965
h1 Hester Secilia * 17.05.1929