By default, images *are* embedded as links in Impress if they are drag-dropped from the Desktop / Finder. I think this a serious usability issue. Drag and dropping an image, the user expects the image to be in the document. It is just weird and pretty annoying to discover afterward that the images are not there when the presentation is opened at another computer. It just doesn't make sense. It is also not consistent with Writer. See also this forum discussion: http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14972 Edit>Links>Break link is not a solution. It isn't even clear that the image is linked instead of embedded. (Bugreport OpenOffice.org Impress equivalent: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=50096)
I discovered that the behavior is not consistent. Currently it looks to me that: - Drag-n-drop PNG image from the desktop -> embedded. - Drag-n-drop JPG image from the desktop -> linked to the original.
I was mixing OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. Double clicking the .odp file opens OpenOffice.org, that caused my confusion. Apparently the issue is fixed in LibreOffice (not in OpenOffice.org btw). Thank you Libre Office!
Closing - Sophie