A bitmap image in writer can have a lot of metadata (size, position, target, alternate name, etc) However once the image is inserted you may notice problems in it and need to replace it. Right now that requires removing the old image, inserting a new one, and re-typing the whole metadata (if you can retype it all by memory without errors) It would be much user-friendly to be able to just select the image, and have a replace entry in the contextual menu
For be able change picture with saving all meta-information, paste pictures as link. (Insert->Picture->From file, and option "Link" on bottom)
That requires a special filesystem structure and makes the document difficult to share This RFE is about replacing pictures on any document opened in writer, regardless of how the pictures were inserted in the first place.
Still a problem here (LO 3.5.7.2). According to the email archives, this was a conscious developer decision: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.user/13940 There's an old extension that reimplements this feature as a toolbar button, but it is lacking (e.g., it doesn't seem to allow "Undo" or CTRL-Z): http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/ChangePicture IMO, this feature should be (re?)introduced to the context-sensitive menu, and to the Picture toolbar.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 82496 ***