Either when inserting a picture from file, or loading a .doc file with a picture
the picture can not extend beyond the edges of the page.
A set of steps to reproduce this is to insert a picture into the word procesor,
then imagine you only want the bottom half of the picture at the top of the
page, and to save time you just will move the picture past the top of the page
so only the bottom half prints. Writer restricts the picture from being moved
there. 
Another example would be having a picture with some whitespace around it and you
want to make it as big as possible, but the actual size of the image in the
middle of the whitespace within the image is still too small, so you try to make
the actually image larger than the page, however what is printed is still
smaller, except Writer stops you before you get bigger than the page.

Using a graphics editor to edit the picture before inserting would be a
solution, however it has come to attention that many .doc files i have received
have bits of pictures hanging outside of pages so when opened within Open Office
do not suit and squashed back into the page limits, which creates more issues.