I think it is important to frame your issue very clearly. Both page layout programs and Word processors have drawbacks with what you a suggesting your problem is.

Putting a graphic on a particular page and having the rest of the text flow independently around it is not actually what you want. This would result in the graphic being pages away from its associated text content when there are multi-page edits in front of the graphic. You would lose context for the graphic.

Using full-page floating OR inline graphics in Word will result in exactly the same behaviour with edits in front of that content. Full page is full page so floating or not makes no difference to where the graphic sits in the text stream or on the page.

What you 'really' want is to have the text flow around the graphic with some user-configurable fuzzy logic so the preceding page is always full with content irrespective of the edits prior to this point. The graphic should remain in the vicinity of the paragraphs that refer to it. Depending on the flow of text, you might describe this as wanting the picture to always appear on either the same page or next page as paragraph X such that all the pages are filled with content and not left half empty.

I don't know of any programs that have this fuzzy logic and it would be a welcome feature that might allow a program to differentiate itself from its competitors.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia