Cannot see image property panel, and general issues with images

When i insert an image (IE 9), i can't see the image properties panel. When i click the image, it jumps to another part in the page or sometimes gets deleted. i would like to align an image next to text, but it rarely obeys drag and drop..only liking to be dropped under or above text, not next to it. I've tried using columns, but this starts to get messy. This is causing major problems with my work.