Hi Bruce -
I'll tell you what I do, not saying it's the best way, but so far - so good....
Get one page set up the way you want it with all the items/text that will be repeated on each page (except for the menu). For lining up things, I put the items pretty much where they need to be then go to View > insert guide. Then use the arrow keys to get things positioned along the guide line. Select everything (shift + click to keep adding to the selection), then copy/paste on to each page. Now I have my basic "template" and pages to link to, so I do the menu - position it and create links, then copy/paste it. I do the menu last so I only have to do the links one time rather than on each page one at a time.
Can you see the bottom of your screen when you type or use your mouse? If so, maybe you could get things lined up close to the bottom of the screen, then hold the up arrow to move everything up - taking a peek every few seconds or so? Also, if you have blocks of text that will be in the same position on different pages, you could get one in place and copy/paste it to the other pages because it will be in the same position as on the original page. Then you could select the text and type the new content into that text box.
I guess another plan might be to use one of the CC templates - if you find one that works for what you want to do, since all the elements will be positioned already...
That's all I've got! I hope you can come up with a plan of attack and get it done the way you want it!