I've discovered, at least with my new Libre Office 4.3.5.2, that I can
open a PDF or .jpg in Writer and not have to open Draw.
I can also insert images (from file) into these respective documents
and then print them to a PDF, if desired, or save as .odt, MS Word,
etc.
This was a pleasure to discover and helps enormously.
I hope it's helpful to others as well.
Happy New Year!
Charles.