I'll have a look into putting images into a group view.
I'm not sure what you mean by this: "But when it came to adding them to a view I couldn't just add a file (my only options were html, file downloads, embedded media or images)"
What way were you expecting to be able to add a file?
As for the .doc and image file in the View, it sounds like there may be a bug there, but we might need more information - what type of group was it, what role were you when you uploaded the image/doc file and what role were you when creating the view?