Determining Photo File Names

[RussG]

I’ve created a Writer document into which I have inserted photos. My problem is that in some cases I have more than one edition of the same photo on my hard drive. Usually they will have different names such as version 1, version 2.

My problem is that I cannot tell which I have inserted into Writer because I can find no way to identify the photos by their original file names once they have been inserted. Is there a way within Writer I can identify photos by the file names I assigned to them when saving them from my image editor?

[ajlittoz]

If you inserted the photos as links, right-click on it and select Properties, Link tab. The URL text box display the location of the image.

Otherwise (copy-paste insertion or plain ol’ Insert>Image without fancy options), LO Writer made a local copy of the image and stored it in the document with name Image<running_number>. You cannot recover the original file location in this case. The advantage is you can erase the source image while keeping it inside the document. You already know the drawback: the local copy is no longer related to any external file.

[RussG]

Thanks. The images were Inserted using the Insert command (Mac) so neither modality you mentioned was used but the result is the same as Copy & Paste, I imagine.

Unfortunately, it appears, the only way to make certain tat the most current images are in my Writer document is to replace every one of them. My wish list for later versions of Writer would be to retain the original file names somewhere.

Had I known of this characteristic of Writer I might have handled things differently.

[Lupp]

The retained “file name” would need to be a path name for disambiguation. Thus it would contain a part of the structure of your local file system (which may be changed, however subsequently). In addition the name itself may contain information or clauses you wouldn’t consciously want to pass to others with the Writer document …
In Zuckerberg times we might be better off with less sub-surface information in our files.
If definitely needed: Insert explicit comments.
Prefer lump sugar.

[Regina]

If it is a photo, then it is likely a jpg file. In that case it contains some additional information. You might find a date and can compare it with the other files you have got. To get this information make a copy of the odt-file and unzip it. You will get a folder Picture, which contains the photos. Open the picture in question in an image editor. It should give you some information about the Photo. IrfanView has an “i”-button for that. Open the other versions in the image editor and compare it.

Or you take an empty new Writer-document and add a version of that photo. Save and unpack. LibreOffice builds the filename of the images in the Picture folder from the content of the image. Compare the name to the names in your unpacked document. Two identical photos will give the same file name. Doing this with each version, you will find that version, which you have used in your document.

[RussG]

How does one unpack a Writer document in Mac OS X?

[Regina]

I don’t know Mac OS X. But a Writer document is actually a zip-container. If you change the file name extension from .odt to .zip the operating system should offer you a way to unpack it.

[RussG]

Thanks. Actually, my girlfriend has the file and she’s on a PC so we will try that on both platforms.