I think perhaps what I've been attempting is impossible. I downloaded from the internet a jpeg (it was a schematic/diagram not a photograph if that matters). I opened it in Inkscape and edited the image a bit (changing some of the text mainly). I saved this file as .emf as I've seen suggested here. When I try to import it into Word 2007 (on a Windows computer), I only get the text I've changed, and none of the original jpeg. If I open it in Paint, it also just has the changed text.

Can you help me? Should I save the jpeg in some other format before working on it?

Thanks.

Follow up: I thought maybe if I saved the jpeg file as a .eps file first, that might work. So I opened the jpeg in Inkscape, and saved it as a .eps file. Then I closed Inkscape and opened it again. This time I tried to open the .eps file, but I get an error message "Failed to load requested file." This file was made by Inkscape. Why can't it open its own file?

Also, I realize I never said what my end goal is: To import an edited image into Word 2007. I've had great success in importing images that are wholly made in Inkscape, but I can't get this to work.

Just export your Inkscape file to an bitmap (PNG).

I find the png format to not look so nice when converted in Inkscape. It looks boxy to me, but I will try it. Out of curiosity, why won't the .emf format work?

The metafile format might just contain the vector part of what you exported. An emf should handle both bitmap and vector graphics, but it sounds like it's not.

Caveman is right, you should just save it as a bitmap png - it will contain all the information you require. The png may look boxy because you've resized it in Word, try to keep images at 100%, or export your png with a higher dpi.