OpenOffice.org/Performance Tips

If you want to OpenOffice.org startup even faster, try these speed boosting tricks.

Upgrade to the latest stable version.
Upgrade your RAM, OpenOffice.org alone needs at least 256 Mb, but it will be a lot happier with more. Refer to recommended (not minimum) RAM requirements of your operating system and desktop environment.
Use native file formats, converting to other formats takes time.

General settings

Visual

In Tools > Options > View:

Switch off showing icons in menus
Disable showing previews of fonts
Disable anti-aliasing (where the option exists), if you don't require this or if your desktop environment does the anti-aliasing job itself;
Consider using the Classic icon style or one that matches your desktop environment (the latter may be pre-set if you use a distribution geared towards a specific desktop environment).

Languages, spelling and grammar

Disable spelling and grammar extensions for languages you don't use (disabling some may require superuser rights);
Disable automatic spelling and grammar checking in
Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids > Options subsection —

Uncheck the following options:

"Check spelling as you type";
"Check grammar as you type".

System-specific information

Windows

Use the quickstarter for faster application start-up. Note that Using the QuickStarter may increase the time for system initialisation.

Linux

Have you run prelink?^[w:Prelink]
If you are using Linux, use your distribution's packages, they are typically more optimized than the plain ones.

If you try renaming a folder containing a new OO document, you may get an error message saying the folder can't be renamed because it's being used--even if you've closed the document. Here's a workaround: Just move the document out of that folder, rename the folder and move the document back in.

Version-specific information

Version 2.0

In 2006, there were some benchmarks which showed that OOo-2.0 still used a lot of memory and was slower than MS-Office, but OOo developers promised that they were working on improvements.

System requirements

This version branch requires at least 128 Mb of RAM to run properly.
Running OO.o 2.x off a LiveCD (such as Knoppix) without swap space requires 2–4 times as much, depending on whither window manager (such as IceWM) or desktop enviornment (like KDE/GNOME) you use.

Disabling writing aids

By default, OpenOffice.org 2.x and earlier include a number of writing aids (dictionaries and thesauri). By version 2.4, the amount of these is extensive, with writing aids for approximately 25 languages and language variants, and all are loaded into memory when starting OO.o.

For everyday use, most languages' and some of their variants' dictionaries can be turned off through
Tools > Options > Language settings > Writing Aids —

Click the [Edit...] button next to "Available language modules" section;
In "Edit Modules" window, choose all unnecessary languages from the drop-down menu and then uncheck their respective spelling, grammar, hyphenation, and thesaurus modules in the list below. When done, click the Close button to exit the window and then click OK to exit the Options window. Restart OO.o.

Version 1.x

In early versions of OpenOffice.org, before 1.1, it was cursed with a severe speed problem, taking a long time to load, often over a minute. As of May 2004, that issue seems to have been resolved with OO.o 1.1.

Requirements

This version branch needs at least 64 Mb of RAM to run properly.

Compiling

If you are compiling OpenOffice.org, make sure you are using the right cflags. A well tuned selection can have a 20% increase. Using the latest version of GCC can also make a big difference.