Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!viccol!dougcc
From: dougcc@csv.viccol.edu.au (Douglas Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: LaTeX and making dictionary style headers?
Message-ID: <3391@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Date: 7 Dec 89 22:13:59 GMT
References: <288@latvax8.lat.oz>
Organization: Computer Services, Victoria College, Melbourne
Lines: 34

In article <288@latvax8.lat.oz>, CCMK@latvax8.lat.oz (Mark Kosten - 
Computer Centre, La Trobe Uni.) writes:
> Someone I know is using LaTeX to make what is essentially a dictionary.
> He would like the first word of the page to appear in the left part
> of the header, and the last word to appear in the right half.
> Needless to say there are many pages, so it is not really a manual
> procedure.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

There is a thing in TeX called a mark for doing just this.  For example,
suppose your are introducing each item in the dictionary with a macro:

  \Item{aardvark}
     .
     .
     .
  \Item{zoology}

Define \Item something like:

  \def\Item#1{  . . .  #1  . . .  \mark{#1}}

Then include the commands

   \firstmark

and

   \botmark

In your page header to produce the desired effect.

The full story is in the TeXbook, page 258.