Make LibreOffice Writer insert pictures "as character" by default?

When I paste an image into LibreOffice Writer, it is anchored "To paragraph" by default (as shown in the image right click menu -> Picture... -> Type -> Anchor).

Of course I can change this on a per-image basis, but I almost always want to use "anchor as character" rather than "anchor to paragraph".

Hence, can I change this such that images are pasted anchored "As character" by default? If so, how?

I'm using LibreOffice version 3.5.4.2. I did look through the options dialog but found nothing that seemed relevant.

According to this bug report you need to edit the file styles.xml, which is accessible if you unzip your document.

A workaround is to anchor one picture as character and create a "new style from selection" after selecting this picture. It is far from ideal, but the only other current option is to hack LibreOffice's files.

When the bug gets fixed, it should be much easier to change the default style.

I successfully opened my Text_with_images.odt file with an archive manager (Engrampa or FileRoller) and then edited styles.xml.

I found this:

<style:graphic-properties text:anchor-type="paragraph"

And edited that to this:

<style:graphic-properties text:anchor-type="as-char"

I saved changes in both files (styles.xml and then Text_with_images.odt). Then opened my Text_with_images.odt file in LibreOffice 4.2.8.2, inserted-from-file another image and voila! it was anchored as character (not paragraph).

Following the bug report, I modified the custom template I use for most of my documents, and it worked flawlessly. Every document created from that template gets the as-char anchor for graphics. you can probably do it in the default template so it works for every document you create. However, that template will get replaced every time you update LibreOffice.