Custom post layouts in WordPress - php

Question

I'm quite new to WordPress, and I'm trying to ease myself into it. I'm currently having a problem with the layout of posts.
One solution to a common layout problem is to require the user to put their content within separate divs within the WYSISYG editor. However, this is obviously not that user friendly.
One solution would be: when they create a new post, there are two separate WYSISWYG editors for that single post. One editor for images, one editor for text. This isn't exclusively a problem of separating images from text — more for separating content from content.
I'm not sure whether this would be with the functions.php or a plugin. I'd rather try and not use plugins if I don't have to.
Any information would be great.

Answer 1

Within the visual editor you can double click an image that you've included and within the advanced tab add your custom classes to it. WP also has alignleft, alignright and more classes for images. If my answer is off I think your question may need to be more pointed.

Answer 2

to solve your first, more specific issue regarding how to separate images from text (content).
As usual, there are many ways to achieve such result. I use this one:
As you may know, you can add images to every single post. The problem you certainly come up against is how to attach specific photos to a specific post without using a gallery placeholder inside the content (WYSISYG editor).
You can do so by uploading photos through "Add media" button. It is essential to "upload" those images to a post not to pick them from the media library. It is my understanding that without plugins this is the only way to genuinely attach images to a post.
The question arises how to get the attachment in your templates.
I use this generic function of mine written in functions.php to fetch attachments of a post:
function get_attachment($args) {
$defaults = array( 'post_type' => 'attachment', 'posts_per_page' => -1, 'post_status' =>'any', 'post_parent' => $post->ID);
$options = array_merge($defaults, $args);
return get_posts( $options );
}
Since you can upload other types of media (video, audio), there are examples how to use the mentioned function within your templates:
$gallery_images = get_attachment(array('post_parent' => $post->ID, 'post_mime_type' => 'image'));
$audio_files = get_attachment(array('post_parent' => $post->ID, 'post_mime_type' => 'audio'));
$video_files = get_attachment(array('post_parent' => $post->ID, 'post_mime_type' => 'video'));
To respond to your more generic question – separating content from content - indeed, you can alter the admin interface of "Add post form" by creating custom fields or meta boxes.
The help for creating meta boxes can be found in the Wordpress Codex, for instance here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_meta_box
I hope it enlightens a bit.