How Do You Make an Image Flow with the Text?

Question

Hello all,
I am using CS4 InDesign on Windows Vista. I am fairly new to Indesign but try to do my research and homework well before asking what I hope is not a really dumb question.
I am writing a book of approx. 350 pages that is an illustrated encyclopedia of 156 plants and their oils.
Each 2 page spread is a single entry for a plant. The graphics frames on each spread are identical in size, position and styles for a consistent look throughout the document.As you can see (hopefully) each page is a single column. See screenshot below
In order to overcome my first problem of positioning and sizing the graphics frames uniformly, I created the master pages with the graphics placeholders sized, positioned and formatted to my liking. This worked wonderfully and I placed all of my 300+ graphics by simply over riding each frame.
Then in my editing I decided to add another 2 page spread somewhere in the middle of this fairly large document.
What a NIGHTMARE. The text predictably shifted but now ALL of my graphics were no longer associated with the corresponding text! Arrrgghhh.I had not anticipated this behavior (used MS Word for 15 years) or I would have done something different.
3 hours later I finished re -"placing" the images associated with the correct text.
I researched the help file and found out about the neccessity of anchoring graphics to text. I have read through the threads in this forum, followed links to "indesignsecrets.com/make-an-image-flow-with-the-text" and " Working with anchored objects by Anne Marie Concepcion"
My concerns are this.
An inline graphic places the graphic back onto your text layer for some reason ( Previously my graphics each had their own layer)
Not wanting to start (again) from scratch with my graphics I converted them to inline/custom anchored objects.
But to select then cut then paste every pre existing graphic to anchor it inline seems to be cumbersome and counter intuitive although the top smaller graphic did position well and the text seemed to wrap ok.
When I placed the larger bottom graphic on the left facing page using custom positioning I was not able to get the text to wrap at all.( The in line anchoring did not seem to allow for positioning on anything but the 'Y' axis).
It seems that there would be a simpler way to place text and graphics where you want them and have them associate and flow together (or not) when you want them to and have text wrap easily around an anchored object without keyboard gymnastics. It would seem that the concept of a certain graphic being associated or linked with certain text would not be an unusual concept in desktop publishing.
Am I missing something?
Can you place an anchored graphics frame on the master page with your desired options?
How would this be done if possible?
Is there any other way (i.e grouping) to keep graphics associated with the desired text so that it flows together if extra pages are added?
Is the fact that my graphics frames are on my master pages responsible for my text wrap difficulty? (I have text wrap enabled on my master pages)
Are there any settings, redundant or otherwise, I need to be aware of?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions or directions
L.N.

Answer 1

Hello Again,
Thank You Bob but I am still a little fuzzy on this. I have already created object styles for the graphics frames. For instance the small graphic underneath the heading (Its a drop of oil) has an object style applied. Now I checked and it has the anchored object options checked in the style dialog box. When I reapply the style to the next similar graphics nothing happens. It is still not anchored. Do I need to create a new style based on "nothing" add my effects plus the anchoring options? Basically start over. If thats what I need to do thats OK. As to your instruction that object styles could accomodate this anchoring thing...thats what I thought too but somehow I can't get it to work. See object style dialog box screenshot below:
For the larger graphic on the bottom of the left facing page. I still cannot get any text to wrap. In the screenshot example the text describing this particular plant doesn't go to the bottom of the page so the wrapping issue on this page is moot. However I have some entries where the body of the description is more involved and does go to the bottom of the page and the text WOULD need to wrap around the plant (larger ) graphic.
Hi there Harb, Yes I found out early on that object styles can't apply size (that would be on my wish list for sure) That is why I found that creating my graphics frames on the master page with the correct size, effects and positioning tickled me so much. Can you believe I originally went through and MANUALLY resized and repositioned each and every 300+ graphics in this book but it still wasn't right. I'm nothing if not persistent. (Now if I could just get my grown sons to pick up their socks!)
Anyway the master page graphics frames idea would be perfect if I could get the images to anchor in their respective spots on the master page as well.
For your second suggestion. I am not clear about why I would need to break the threads of each spread so that each spread is a seperate article. Is the threading issue the thing that is causing my text to move on leaving their associated graphics behind? If so how do I go about doing this?
So to recap:
1. I need to know if I can modify my object style or recreate from scratch with the anchoring option (as I said it didn't work)
2. Can't get text to wrap around the Custom anchored graphic at bottom of page at all
3. Im not clear on the breaking the threading on the spreads
I am willing to go back through and start from scratch (new master pages, styles etc ) if neccesary. This book is the culmination of 7 years of research and artwork.Basically the project is DONE. Now if I can just format it correctly.
I can't thank you both enough for your time, suggestions, expertise and patience.
Thanks again
LN