In re-reading this thread, it occurs to me that one rather significant point has not been made.

Kat: You indicated you intend to include pictures in your book.

[ - Pause to cringe before asking - ] Are you anticipating colored pictures?

Be aware that - if you are intending to have the book professionally printed, using a "plate printing" process, any color may actually make it necessary to use a "real" page layout program. It will also make it much more expensive to print.

It was my initial impression that you want to produce a book for your own use, and for limited distribution to family and friends; and that you would like to do as much of the "production" as possible for yourself.

If this is fairly close to your objective, you can probably do everything you need to do in any recent version of Micro$oft Word. Once you've figured out your original page order problem - which I think you can do now - you can print individual 2-sided sheets, and assemble them to suit yourself.

If you have a color inkjet printer, you can scan your pictures and paste them into Word (you'll probably want to use bitmap, .bmp format) and you should get reasonable results. You can use color this way, although most older inkjets aren't really too crispy.

If you want to make more than a few copies, it becomes impractical to print each one directly. It can also get rather expensive - rule of thumb is about 40 cents per (8.5 x 11) side for the cost of using most inkjets (if you include all the costs). Unfortunately, if you use colored pictures in this way, there is no easy (or cheap) way to get copies made that will retain the color. Color copiers are available, although they may be difficult to find; and the per-page cost adds up rapidly.

If you can do without color - or can limit the color to a separate (appendix?) section, you will get better results with a laser printer, and Kinkos or other similar shops can copy a master (unfolded) set fairly reasonably. You would still have to handle the separate reproduction of the "color" section. A few places (OfficeMax/CopyMax in my area) have PCs you can "rent" with attached laser printers, so you could take your file in and print the master there, (if they have a compatible program installed). A 100 page Word document, all text, would fit on a floppy disk, but each picture you paste in will increase the file size by 15 to 150 KB or more, so it is very easy to get file sizes that dont fit on a floppy. You just make separate "chapter" files.

The reason for the "cringe" over the question of color pictures is that - if you are considering a large enough "production" to require professional offset or other "plate" method printing, the colors have to be separated and printed in separate printing "passes." Word has limited ability to handle this kind of artwork, and in this case you would probably want to find someone who's already done it and "contract out" a final layout, using a "real" page layout program. You don't want to have to learn what needs to be done, much less how to do it in one of the "industrial strength" programs required.

If your "pictures" are mainly photographs, a decent scanner can probably give you "usable" files that you can paste in. If the photos are not "pristine," you may want to find someone with "graphics arts" experience and software to clean them up for you. The "restoration" that can be done fairly simply can look miraculous.

If you have pictures from magazines, old maps, etc., I would strongly advise having someone do some clean up. The "screen dots" will kill ya if you don't. Seriously, you should try a few "test prints," but don't abandon hope if you print mostly "mud with ripples."

Almost any picture can be converted to "gray scale" and printed in black and white, which will greatly simplify (and save $$$ on) your printing and reproducing. For a "historical" book, you can think of it as "period charm."

A specific question asked above: can you edit pdf files. Answer, Yes - if you have Adobe Distiller (about $200), but don't do it. It is much more efficient to edit in the original program and "redistill" (still about $200)a new pdf.

PDF files are the "current standard" format for sending files to a print shop, for them to use in making the "plates" from which a book will be printed. Unless your ambitions for this book are somewhat larger than I think, you should stick to something simpler.

I accidentally signed my last one twice - probably the length deserved it?

John