\begin{figure}[hbtp]
- h = here
- b = botom
- t = top
- p = page of floats
Algorithm will try the current position in document first, then bottom, then top and then on a seperate page. If you just specify 'h' you will force placement where the figure command is in the document. The order is encoded by you — i.e., you could specify ptbh which would force a reverse order of evaluation.
p.s., I would strongly recomend anyone using latex to use lyx. Its just as powerfull as straight latex but its wysiwyg and you can drop to tex anywhere you want.