How to speed up OpenOffice

Filed under: Office, Productivity, OpenOffice.org, Open Source

How to speed up OpenOffice

by Brad Linder Aug 18th 2007

From the "if we really thought about it we would have been able to figure this out on our own" department comes a handy tip for speeding up OpenOffice.org -- by increasing its memory use.

The open source Microsoft Office alternative is great if you're looking for a low cost word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application. But it takes so long to load up, especially if you don't enable the quick start application.

Here's how to cut down OpenOffice.org's startup time:

Start OpenOffice (it doesn't matter which application you load, Calc, Impress, or Writer will all work)
Click Tools>Options
Select Java menu and uncheck "Use a Java runtime environment"
Select the Memory Tab and change the following options:

Number of steps: 30
Use for Open Office: 128
Memory per Object: 20
Number of Objects: 20

Next time you start an OpenOffice.org application it should open much more quickly. But it will also eat up more memory. If you have an older computer with less than 1GB of RAM, you might want to just live with a slow load time. Or buy more memory.

[via gHacks]

Tags: memory, openoffice.org, ram, speed, tips

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

AsktheAdmin said 1:27PM on 8-18-2007

Awesome. Just what we were looking for! Thank you from your friends over @ http://www.askTheAdmin.com

We are really big fans of Open Office and are trying to push for a corporate move to it. Every little bit helps!

alex said 6:25PM on 8-18-2007

WOW! Thanks a lot for this tip! I always thought that open office was great but it takes so much time to load. Now it's lightning fast!

RedBeard said 9:51PM on 8-18-2007

This is a great tip. I have heard that disabling Java will make some parts of OpenOffice not work. I am going to test my usage without the Java and if I have no problems, that is perfect. If there is some problems, I will re-enable Java and see if my performance tanks or is at least a little bit better.

Brad Linder said 9:56AM on 8-20-2007

Thanks Ralphl!

Ralphl said 10:21AM on 8-20-2007

A useful tip, especially for Windows users.
However, I think you meant "an older computer with LESS than 1GB of RAM". Yep, I'm an editor, and I use OpenOffice on Ubuntu every day. ;)

For a funny typo, see my post @
http://themanual.ca/blog/?p=22

Derek Gates said 1:12PM on 8-20-2007

Great post! My startup time went from 10+ seconds to 1-2. Thank you!

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