Insert > Object > Ole Object afaict there is no way to tell if the inserted object is embedded or linked. It is possible to see in Edit > External Links that there are links, but there is no indication of the object of the link. For Images, there is an indication in Navigator if the object is linked, but not for OLE objects. If could be helpful if Navigator gave an indication and / or in the Properties dialog. Even better would be some kind of decoration on the border of the linked object in the document.
I agree with suggestion in general and the idea about some chain icon near the Object name in the Navigator seems good Added UX-team for discussion
I don't even see an indicator for Insert > Image: [x] Link. Such an icon would be a nice enhancement. And perhaps an interesting task for Jim... (or an easyhack maybe?) :-)
Jim Raykowski committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/1c638b7ac46d8077994c8483e6becc4a33efd12b tdf#149073 SwNavigator: provide an indication for linked images It will be available in 7.6.0. The patch should be included in the daily builds available at https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.