Writer frequently lags

English
#1

Winwows 11, 88gb free ssd, 16gb ram 70% used. LO 7.6.7.2 – gathering this info, I see that the latest dnload is version 24?? I don’t like to update often, because it has fouled up my calc macros in the past. But I didn’t think it had been this long. How often are they revising?

It can take several seconds for the highlight to show up after I’ve double clicked a word. Also for the cursor simply to appear a couple lines down after I click to relocate it.

It happens on 179mb files and 1.6mb files and smaller. I haven’t noted the lag in Calc, but I’m not in that as much, and those files aren’t big.

I’d like any thoughts before I take the risk of upgrading.

Thanks

#2

Your version has only just got to end of life on 16th June, that is no more bug fixes for it. I’m sure it will be fine until you are ready to update.

This year the numbering system changed from sequential numbering, of which you version is the last, to year based numbering. Version 24.2 was released in February 2024, the re have been some interim updates since. The next version will be 24.8, next month from the look of it.

The release plan can be seen or is linked from here, Release Plan 24.2 - The Document Foundation Wiki


If LibreOffice is a bit slow you could check if there is something else running that has higher priority for resources such as games.

Maybe try clicking Tools - Options - LibreOffice - View and tick the box Force Skia software rendering. Restart LibreOffice and see if it has improved

#3
#4

Sorry, according to the release plan.

BTW When I posted this, the Download page had already been corrected. In any event, the download release plan page has a fuller explanation.

#5

leider nicht so klar auf DE, FR, ES, IT … :frowning:
image

Dernière version stabilisée Libreoffice - #3 by fpy

#6

Any unreachable network printer set up as the default printer?

#7

Thanks for the versioning explanation. I’ll wait a month.

I’ve kept Task Mgr up to monitor processes and ram usage. The latter is steady and well below max (I remember 77% used at one point ). I recognize some common app processes and not others – don’t know how to identify bloatware.

But my daily workflow hasn’t changed muuch for years. Same programs running concurrently throughout the day. And of course it’s intermittent – right now it’s behaving, other times maddening. I’ll keep monitoring.

thanks again

#8

Did changing the graphics settings make any difference?

#9

Sorry. Skia was already set to forced

#10

I took a file with text, footer, lots of screen clips and dumped multiple copies into a test file. Ending file size >950 pages 4.9mb. The screen clip was taken while the system was working/stalling/delaying. Note the low % resource usage. Signal, Proton Mail desktop, and task manager were the only apps running.

Times it took after certain operations before I got my cursor back and could resume editing.

  • paste a screen clip of the CPU and memory usage into it – 26 seconds
  • added a return to the file – 42 seconds
  • selected and dragged the screen clip up into the paragraph above it – 27 seconds
  • clicked to save the file – 40 seconds

These were readily repeatable during the exercise. I did encounter a multi-second double click to select a word, but I couldn’t repeat it today. I know it will happen again.

LO writer performance
LO writer performance819×213 16.1 KB

#11

The CPU and Memory look high. Has your document been saved, or is it all in memory?

Try restarting in LibreOffice safe mode (Help > Restart in safe mode > Continue in safe mode) and open the same file. Are the resources still so high? Does it respond faster? If so, then look at this page, LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki

If safe mode made no difference, you could try clicking View > Images and charts to toggle visibility (and rendering) of images to save resources. Also, consider inserting images at final size and dpi. For screenshots, I find that saving them png with only 256 colours reduces the file size massively while keeping them sharp; the png file is inserted into Writer.

As a test

  1. I opened the Writer Guide 7.3 odt, copied the entire document and pasted it at the end, so 1255 pages in total
  2. I also opened a document I use for testing, only 20 MB, but with some extras that make it take a while to load

If I select a word or paragraph, or type anything, it is instant. Except for the 10 or so seconds after pasting the entire book back into itself, after that, it was OK again even without saving.

In Task Manager LibreOffice shows 0% CPU (fallen from 25% after copy/paste). Memory 981 MB

Version: 24.2.4.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 51a6219feb6075d9a4c46691dcfe0cd9c4fff3c2
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22631; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-NZ (en_NZ); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded

Total RAM installed 8GB

#12

Do you practice style formatting?
If you don’t, i.e. everything is done manually with keyboard shortcuts for bold, italic, … or menu commands, every typographical variation is encoded separately. This results in a huge inflation in the encoded description of your document and requires a lot of processing. On the contray with style formatting, typographical details are stored only once and repeatedly used over and over.

Another contributing factor is the number of tables and frames (images are hosted in frames). If your images are scaled and cropped by Writer, this requires also a lot of resources. This is why it is better to prepare images outside Writer so that they are used “as is” without further processing. And again, an adequately configured frame style if possible (or a reduced number of them) puts less strain on Writer. But, beware, frame styles without direct formatting are extremely difficult to tame.

#13

Sorry for the delay. No. [edit: no printer issues and haven’t emphasized styles]

#14

Then read the Writer Guide for an introduction to styles. After that, format your document with paragraph styles first (a handful of them only is necessary), and in a second step chase direct formatting inside paragraphs. It is usually much more frequent than direct formatting on paragraphs (indents, spacing). Apply character styles instead of bold, italic, colour, font change, …

Don’t forget to clear direct formatting otherwise it remains in place. You should notice a dramatic decrease in file size.

Your document should open faster. I understand it is in the 1k-pages range.

#15

Quick introduction into the work flow: http://openoffice-uni.org/
https://designingwithlibreoffice.com/ (2nd chapter on styles).

#16

The CPU and Memory look high. Has your document been saved, or is it all in memory?

Try restarting in LibreOffice safe mode (Help > Restart in safe mode > Continue in safe mode) and open the same file. Are the resources still so high? Does it respond faster? If so, then look at this page, LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki

All files tested were saved. IDK how to tell if it’s all in memory. Same apps open, safe mode was normal only a couple seconds to save. Didn’t see a delay in double click to select. CPU down to 9-11%, memory 66%. Closed safe mode and called it back up, sluggish again.

I’ll have to reserve time for the info on the user profile page.

I’ll also take a look at the Writer Guide and workflow doc.

Don’t know when I’ll get through it all.

Thanks EarnestAI, ajlittoz, Villeroy.

#17

Update: I’ve been using LO normally for a week or so and it’s working normally. Here’s what I did.

  • Restart in Safe mode – Help, Restart in Safe Mode
  • Under Reset factory settings, I chose the first item to reset with user interface modifications

As I remember, my personal auto correct settings and my templates were still there. Although I had to re-specify which template to use as default.

Thanks to all for all comments.

#18

If it is significantly quicker in safe mode then you should reset your user profile. This removes all customisations, user templates, etc.
If you rename your user profile, then you can drag the relevant folders back into the new profile. Full details at LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki

#19

It was clearly faster in safe mode and that’s what I did per community comments. Thanks for link re. profile

#20

Safe mode is only for testing, often to see if the issue arises in the user profile. It uses a new profile each time so no settings or customisations can be maintained.

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