I would like to assign paragraph numbers to paragraph with specific styles.

This numbering would be independent of list and heading numbering.

I would like these numbers to be saved as metadata with the paragraph that I would export.

Ideally, I would like to be able to display the paragraph numbers in word.

I imagine this could be done by creating a custom field programmatically.

Could such a field be displayed programmatically (e.g. centered vertically to the paragraph and displayed outside the left margin)?

How might I go about doing this?
What reading would teach me? (even if it's assembly language programming)

Thanks