Sequencing pages for me is very confusing.

Question

Sequencing pages for me is very confusing.
Are there any step by step instructions somewhere that give detailed instructions on how to sequence pages for Indesign in the "correct" order?
1) Saddle stitch (CD booklet stapled in the middle) This is the kind where the page order gets shuffled and I'm not sure how InDesign wants to "see" the layout of pages so I can let Indesign do the correct page order.
2) Spiral Bound (no shuffling of page order here, just front and back 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, etc.) This one is easier, so I succeeded in accomplishing it once, but I still had to do a lot of reordering of the pages, for example, whenever I had to "insert" a new page between other pages that were already numbered in the correct sequence.
I hope that I was clear. Basically, I get very confused if I cannot physically organize a real paper copy of the pages. My goal is to master the Saddle Stitch and stick with that since I dislike anything spiral bound.
I was told that I should either let the printer people handle page signature (which in my opinuion would severely confuse things) or that maybe, if I want to sequence pages correctly, InDesign has a feature which just automatically sequence the pages. Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

I'll repond to everybody's post in one big paragraph, lumping everyone together:
(My InDesign version is CS3)
Sorry, I meant to say 'imposition' instead of 'signature', and I was using the term 'page order', because even people who use InDesign and know what I'm talking about, they might not be familiar with creating saddle stitch pages. Mike Trout, the link you provided didn't work!
Mike Gianino, are you saying i must TELL indesign to use reader spreads, and then when i am finished, tell it to organize everything into 'printer speads' automatically? Is that option a one step process found in the InDesign menu? Because even if I do what you say.. I will still have to visually organize the pages in a way that Heather mentioned (numerically, but shuffled) This is where the battle between visual layout and numerical page order can get confusing if you have InDesign doing some work automatically with one click of the button. ("printer speads")
Now, I realize that it is wise to ask your printer what they need,
but I plan on doing a lot of this on my own at home at some point. And so, I will have to be "on my own" in regards to not wasting all that precious paper and ink.
Heather, I;ll check out InBooklet.
Now, in other words, to clarify what you said..
if my saddle stitch book was, say 18 pages, instead of 16,
it would go like this?
18/1
2/17
16/3
4/15
14/5
6/13
12/7
8/11
10/9...??
For some reason, it looks like my page 10 comes before my page 9!
Also, if i want to add a cover to those pages, should i
put it on a separate document? Because it looks like that
part of the book will not be numbered!