Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Running OO 4.1.15 on MacBook Air (1.8 GHz dual-core, 8 GB RAM) running Ventura (13.7.1).

I created a drawing, imported two high-res PNGs into separate layers, added boxes, dimensions, and annotations. Every action is SOOO slow (10-45 seconds!). It is (almost) unusable. I tried with no other apps running, and no noticeable difference. I checked Activity Monitor, and it doesn't seem starved for RAM.

I haven't used OO in awhile, and I haven't used Draw before, so I don't know what to expect. Did I miss a setting during installation?

adouthb wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2024 12:56 am I … imported two high-res PNGs

I suspect the huge images are most of the problem. Let's say the images are 3000 by 4000 plxels, which is a common baseline for a cell phone camera now. Some cameras may create much bigger photos. Consider what you are going to do with this presentation.

• Print it? Then check the resolution of your printer. Can it really print all those pixels? Or is the printer driver going to merge them for you?
• Display the presentation for a group? Check the resolution of the slide projector. Can it display images at anything like that resolution?

If the fine detail in the image can't be seen when printed or projected, then you're asking OpenOffice to struggle with details which will never be seen in the presentation. I'm pretty sure you can find other topics on the forum dealing with similar problems where similar solutions are suggested.

If the printer driver or the projection system is going to reduce the image resolution anyway, do that up front. Load the images into a raster graphics editor to change the resolution, save them, then import the reduced images into Draw. (Draw is a vector graphics editor.) You should have fewer problems with images which are sized appropriately for your task. If you don't know or don't want to investigate the resolution of the device displaying the presentation, start by reducing the image size by at least 75% and see if the resulting presentation looks OK. For example, the 3000 by 4000 pixel PNG image is 12 megabytes of data. Try a 1 megabyte JPG version. PNG is a lossless storage format. JPG compresses image data using clever algorithms which preserve the appearance to the human eye while eliminating inessential nuances, resulting in smaller file sizes. JPG images can look identical to PNG images even though they are much smaller.
Comparison of graphics editors
[Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images

I seldom use Draw and don't recall having this type of problem, but you could consider allowing OpenOffice to use more memory. Options are set with OpenOffice → Preferences on a Mac, Tools → Options on other platforms. The OpenOffice default settings are more appropriate for hardware 20 years ago. Here is what I use.

A rule of thumb is that on a printed output a resolution of greater than 210 dpi (dots per inch) is unnecessary.