How Fussy Is AOO with Importing Images?

[White Phoenix]

I have tried importing/embedding images into a cell, but the image never appeared. I even made sure the PNG image was the same size as the cell (2.5 cm × 0.5 cm). I started thinking about it and am now wondering if the bit depth and/or resolution may be the problem. The bit depth of the images I am using is 32 bit, and the resolution is 300 px/in (118.11 px/cm). I found a different solution to coloring the backgrounds of my cells, but I found out that AOO does hatching which would be nice to use in the cells showing the heraldic hatching schemes for those tinctures. But hatching only works in Draw or Impress, not Writer, Calc or Charts. So I now wind up having to use images anyway. Or I can just leave them as they are now with a sort of shorthand describing the hatching.

[RusselB]

Why are you trying to put pictures into a spreadsheet? To my knowledge it's not possible to do mathematics with a picture, and that is what a spreadsheet is meant for.

[Zizi64]

I have tried importing/embedding images into a cell,

You can not put images into/inside a cell. The embedder and trthe linked pictures are located on a graphical layer. But you can align them (manually or programatically) to a cell. There are sample macro codes for this task on this forum.

I even made sure the PNG image was the same size as the cell (2.5 cm × 0.5 cm). I started thinking about it and am now wondering if the bit depth and/or resolution may be the problem. The bit depth of the images I am using is 32 bit, and the resolution is 300 px/in (118.11 px/cm).

You need optimize your pictures before you embed or linked into a spreadsheet file. It is enough a 8 bit color depth (256 color) for most of the pictures. The 300 dpi seems a good choice.
The spreadsheet application is NOT a photo album. Do not use it as a photo album.
The pictures must be demonstrations only (thumbnails) for showing a product in a "database", etc... Not needed the 32 bit color depth.

How you inserted the pictures? Is the source files (the pictures) are always available on same path, then it is enough to LINK the pictures (the .ods file will be smaller). If you want send the spreadsheet file to somebody, then better to EMBED the pictures. (Otherwise you must send the pictures separatelly, and the inserted paths must be same on the another computer.)

[John_Ha]

AOO is not the slightest bit fussy about images.

See [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for a discussion on how best to handle images in Writer.

[White Phoenix]

I was trying to put the image into a table cell in Writer, but it wasn’t working. So maybe you can import an image into Writer, but not into a table in Writer.

Maybe I misunderstood this:
Inserting Bitmaps
A bitmap image can be inserted in OpenOffice Writer, OpenOffice Calc, OpenOffice Draw and OpenOffice Impress documents.
1. Choose Insert - Picture - From File.
2. Select the file. In the File type box you can restrict the selection to certain file types.
3. Click the Link box if you want a link to the original file.
If the Link box is marked, whenever the document is updated and loaded the bitmap image is reloaded. The editing steps that you have carried out in the local copy of the image in the document are re-applied and the image is displayed.
If the Link box is not marked, you are always working with the copy created when the graphic was first inserted.
To embed graphics that were first inserted as links, go to Edit - Links and click the Break Link button.
4. Click Open to insert the image.

Also this:
Defining Background Colors or Background Graphics
You can define a background color or use a graphic as a background for cell ranges in OpenOffice Calc.
Applying a Background Color to a OpenOffice Calc Spreadsheet
1. Select the cells.
2. Choose Format - Cells (or Format Cells from the context menu).
3. On the Background tab page, select the background color.
Graphics in the Background of Cells
1. Choose Insert - Picture - From File.
2. Select the graphic and click Open.
The graphic is inserted anchored to the current cell. You can move and scale the graphic as you want. In your context menu you can use the Arrange - To Background command to place this in the background. To select a graphic that has been placed in the background, use the Navigator .

[Zizi64]

I was trying to put the image into a table cell in Writer, but it wasn’t working. So maybe you can import an image into Writer, but not into a table in Writer.

This function works fine for me in my LO6.1.6 an the portable AOO4.1.5 versions with PNG type images on Win7Prof.

[John_Ha]

Images in table cells work just fine - see file. I placed the cursor in the cell and dragged the image to that cell or Insert > Image ..., or Paste (for graphics not photo images).

Image inserted into table cell in AOO

May I suggest you read Chapter 8 - Working with Graphics in the Writer User Guide for Writer problems and Chapter 5 - Using Graphics in Calc in the Calc Guide for Calc problems.

The chapter headings in the Writer manual are:

1 - Introducing Writer
2 - Setting up Writer
3 - Working with Text
4 - Formatting Pages
5 - Printing, Exporting, Faxing and E-Mailing
6 - Introduction to Styles
7 - Working with Styles
8 - Working with Graphics
9 - Working with Tables
10 - Working with Templates
11 - Using Mail Merge
12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies
13 - Working with Master Documents
14 - Working with Fields
15 - Using Forms in Writer
16 - Customizing Writer – Keyboard shortcuts.

[Villeroy]

The database component can handle (links to) pictures in various ways. Depending on the used database engine, pictures can be "cell data" or URL links and they can be displayed in input forms and reports as well. As with any other type of data, the key to a satisfactory solution is data hygiene. If you store a multi Megabyte high resolution wallpaper in an embedded database, the application may crash when you pre-load form data with 40+ of these images. If you use some tools to keep file sizes as big as necessary and as small as possible and if you prefer linking over embedding, you can handle hundreds of pictures selected out of millions.

[White Phoenix]

The database component can handle (links to) pictures in various ways.

Not once did Help indicate that any images/graphics could be used in Base. I don’t normally use base, but I have considered converting many of my spreadsheets into MySQL databases. It will be a huge undertaking in any event considering the number of spreadsheet-databases I have. If I could use Base for this project, I may do that instead. Although, I still would rather embed instead of link images. And I would rather color the cells than embed.

Images in table cells work just fine - see file. I placed the cursor in the cell and dragged the image to that cell or Insert > Image ..., or Paste (for graphics not photo images).

Okay, I finally found this which helps:

Note The term graphics refers to both pictures and drawing objects. Often the word images is used when referring to pictures and other graphics that are not drawing objects.

Using “image” for both is confusing, without this explanation.

This helps too:

Note The picture is inserted into Calc floating above the cells and anchored to the cell in which the cursor was placed. See “Positioning graphics” on page 19 for more about positioning and anchoring graphics.

Since I don’t want the colors to float, this is no good. This is why hatching interested me, but there isn’t any way to show hatching other than what I have done. Right now I am providing a representation of hatching in a cell like these: “staggered dots”, “| lines”, “staggered — and dots”, “| and / lines crossed”.

I have seen the hatching table. I would need to add a few graphics for the heraldic hatches that are missing, but it could work.

I am embedding (or using the picture editor) the colors, since I may need to edit the colors if I make a mistake, or decide to re-define the color. I noticed that this changes the color table, but I also found out that I can have multiple color tables and switch between them using an extension.

[quote="OOo3 User Guide, Impress Guide, Using Tables]Since OpenOffice.org version 3.0, tables are supported natively in Impress, which means that there is no need to embed a Calc spreadsheet or a Writer text table although in some circumstances it makes sense to do so as the functionalities provided by a Calc spreadsheet are far superior to those provided by an Impress table.[/quote]

Which is why I prefer using a spreadsheet for a reference table of color and heraldic hatching. I suppose I can use Writer and make a document using a format like this for each color:

Color Name
[color sample]
Alternative Name(s):
Heraldic Name:
RGB:
Hex:
HSB:
CMYK:
Note dialogue.

Heraldic Tinctures
Type:
Color:
[hatching sample]
Range:
Abbreviation(s):
Planet:
Gem:

The problem is that I don’t always add the colors in order, and I may be adding new ones. I want to include some other color models in the future, as well. Sorting them in order will be difficult in the above format. So will be checking for duplicate colors. Besides, I want to be able to sort by color name, or any of the different color models. If I am going to use a table with hundreds of colors, I may as well use Calc (or Base) instead of Writer.

[Villeroy]

You can not use pictures, drawings, media in Calc except for decoration and illustration. Hyperlinks are the maximum you can achieve in the context of a pseudo-database. If you are interested in a picture of some item, click the hyperlink. A light weight external viewer should open the picture then.