Article database

I've seen this question asked before, but I've never seen it answered satisfactorily. I'd like to be able to give my users the ability to create "how-to" articles on the fly. Actually, it's pretty much one user (it's an in-house project), but this one user is a doozy. If I just allow straight file uploads and require .txt or .html files, this user will just rename his Wordperfect .doc files and upload them. I know him. If I use a form and allow text only, how do I associate pictures with it? If pictures are uploaded, can they only be shown as a group, say at the bottom of the article? Is there anyway to integrate "picture goes here"? I'm thinking that, for searchability's sake, the text will be stored in a table in the db, but storing files in a folder isn't out of the question. The whole internet seems to be run on these automatically generated pages, but my mind reels when I try to think through how to go about this. Can someone provide some guidance on how this is normally done? paross1, have you ever done this?