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One of the programs I use heavily in Ubuntu is Open/LibreOffice as part of my work specifically Draw.

I recently upgraded to Natty 11.04 (clean install) obviously this has meant switching to LibreOffice. I know I can go back to OpenOffice if I want to but Oracle seem to be more interested in lawyers than FOSS and I'm sure LO will be a lot better in a short period of time.

The only problem I have found switching is a strange (irritating) difference which doesn't seem to have a config setting that I can change. In OO When I select an image and insert a new one it will "replace" the original using the same dimensions in LO this is not the case the image is simply added to the page whether you select an image on the page or not.

I did find an OO extension which provides the same functionality

Change picture extension - http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/ChangePicture

The main issue is the extension doesn't use the "working directory" of LO so you have to navigate to the correct directory each time (censored). As I will be doing this for 4 pictures per document and over 1000 documents and possibly many more in the future my sanity is at stake.

So if any one has any insights on the easiest way to solve this one thanks in advance.

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up vote 2 down vote accepted

LibreOffice is the same office suite that has been shipped in previous Ubuntu releases. Many of LibreOffice's first improvements were patches from the go-ooo project which were already being used in major Linux distributions. If expected and optimal behavior changed from one release to the next that is a regression and you should file a bug about it.

The OpenDocument Format is actually a zipped XML format. It may be possible to write a script to replace the images since you are having to repeat the action so many times.

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Thanks Jeremy I will be reporting the bug I was kind of hoping that it was an option which had been defaulted to off position in the switch to Libre. I have tried looking for scripted/batch editing of OO documents before and haven't found anything if you have any examples could you drop a link? –  Allan May 8 '11 at 11:44
Sorry, I haven't found any links nor have I ever done this. I was just pointing out that it's likely possible for a good scripter. –  Jeremy Bicha May 8 '11 at 11:52
bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/761597 The bug refers to Impress but it seems the bug is in core thus effecting all parts of Libre Office. –  Allan May 8 '11 at 13:10
I would like to add that an upstream bug with LO has been filed based on the LP report: bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36486 –  Glutanimate Mar 29 '13 at 6:40
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