Easier way to add multiple images to posts?

Hello all. I’ve hopefully got an easy question to answer… I’ve set up a site in which I intend to post my computer modding worklogs. The posts I make will include multiple pictures pulled from a gallery. I’m using the NextGen gallery plugin for gallery displays, but most of the post content will be of the ‘thumbnail then click to enlarge’ variety. Right now, it seems to be a convoluted process to add pics to a post. It requires a few time consuming steps, and was wondering if there’s a simpler way to preview and add multiple pics into a post.

I posted on a friend’s blog last year, and seem to remember it being much easier. He has since let the blog expire, and doesn’t remember using a specific plugin. He thinks it was just the way that WordPress worked.

So, can anyone shed some light on this for me? It would be much appreciated!