Writer Guide

2) On the main menu, select Insert > Picture > From File. This
displays the dialog box shown in Figure 249.
3) Navigate to the file to be inserted, select it, and click Open.
Figure 249: Insert picture dialog box
Note
At the bottom of the Insert picture dialog box are two check
boxes. If Preview is checked, the selected graphic file is
previewed in a pane, as shown in Figure 249, so you can verify
that you have the correct file. The Link option is discussed
below.
Linking an image file
If the Link option in the Insert picture dialog box is selected, Writer
creates a link to the file containing the image, instead of saving a copy
of the image in the document. The result is that the image is displayed
in the document, but when the document is saved, it will contain only a
reference to the image file—not the image itself. The document and the
image remain as two separate files, and they are merged together only
when you open the document again.
Linking an image has two advantages and one disadvantage:
• Advantage – Linking can reduce the size of the document when it
is saved, because the image file itself is not included. The file size
is usually not a problem on a modern computer with a reasonable
amount of memory, unless the document includes many large
graphics files. Writer can handle quite large files.
• Advantage – You can modify the image file separately without
changing the document because the link to the file remains valid,
and the modified image will appear when you next open the
document. This can be a big advantage if you (or someone else,
perhaps, a graphic artist) is updating images.
Chapter 8 Working with Graphics 265