[texhax] LaTeX programming question

[Lantz Susan]

Josh,

I don't know if there is a package or documentclass that will do this
type of thing for you.

For the case you described, I think the easiest solution would be to
create a new environment for these ``special'' paragraphs. That would
take care of setting them off from the rest of the text, and could also
adjust the headers and footers (although that's a bit trickier).

Susan

Susan A. Lantz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Tri-State University
lantzs at tristate.edu
 

-----Original Message-----

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:30:21 -0600
From: "Joshua Harold Shrader" <Joshua.Shrader at utah.edu>
Subject: [texhax] LaTeX programming question
To: <texhax at tug.org>
Message-ID:
	
<7F140DE91BBA4A4C8A6521FD90F04BC0086A46 at CAMPUSV5.xds.umail.utah.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I've searched extensively for some package / class that performs this,
but have not found anything, and would greatly appreciate some help.
Here's the problem:
 
I would like to be able to type a document where I can flag certain
paragraphs to be treated specially.  For example:
 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
This paragraph is normal
 
\begin{special1}
  I would like this paragraph, when typeset, to appear with a "(P1)" at
the very beginning of the paragraph.  If this paragraph is broken across
pages, I would like the "(P1)" to appear as the first couple characters
on the second page where the paragraph is broken.  Also, on any page
that contains a portion of this paragraph, I would like the header and
footer to say "Paragraph Type 1".
\end{special1}
 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
I'm not very familiar with programming with LaTeX.  I am currently
reading through The LaTeX Companion.  I do have significant programming
background, but the TeX/LaTeX syntax is not like anything I've ever seen
before.  I'm not even sure if something like this is possible.  
 
Do you know of anything out there that performs something similar to
what I'm looking for.  If not, is LaTeX at least capable of doing
something like this.  
 
Thank you so much for your help.
 
Josh Shrader