LaTeX help - figures and tables have their own mind!

[KillerCharlie]

Does anyone have experience using LaTeX? I'm having a heck of time getting figures and tables to go where I want them.

I know there are quite a few engineers and mathematicians out there so hopefully someone knows this stuff better than I do. Online resources don't really seem to help.

 

[kamper]

Post code.

I have very limited experience, but from the little I've seen, it moves them around so that they best fit the page layout, so you don't have lots of blank space and stuff. Not intuitive, but kind of a good idea.

 

[KillerCharlie]

Here's an example:

\begin{figure}[h!bt] \centering
\includegraphics[angle=0,scale=.6]{figures.dir/p_match}
\isucaption{Comparison of pressure distributions.}
\label{nozzlepic1}
\end{figure}

The positioning lies in the [h!bt]. I think b and t force it to be in the top or bottom of the page. I changed those and it didn't help.