In searching through the community forums, I found an old post for a similar sounding problem on Ubuntu:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=10183
The solution suggested by Bubba123 on that thread also solved the issue for me on OS X 10.10, with some slight adjustments (these steps updated for AOO 4.1.1 options on OS X):
- Go to OpenOffice > Preferences ... from the menu bar
- With the selection in the left pane (you won't see the text), press the down-arrow key until "Options - OpenOffice - View" is displayed in the dialog title bar
- Uncheck the first 2 checkboxes, near the top left of the right pane
- Click the left-most button on the bottom of the dialog (this is the OK button, and was highlighted for me)
Interestingly, I checked with a colleague also using OS X 10.10, who was not experiencing this issue. I'm not sure what might be different between our system configurations, but once these options were unchecked and the changes applied, text has begun appearing in dialogs again for me. Figured I'd share in case anyone else is experiencing the same problem.