Starting from the command line

From OpenOffice.org Wiki

You may want to start OOo from the command line (using the keyboard instead of the mouse). Why? Well, by using the command line, you have more control over what happens when OOo is started. For example, using the command line, you can tell Writer to load a document and print it immediately, or to start without showing the splash screen.

There is more than one way to start OOo from the command line, depending on whether a customized version or the standard download from the OpenOffice.org website has been installed.

If you installed using the download on the OpenOffice.org website, you can start Writer by typing at the command line:

soffice -writer

or

swriter

Writer will start and create a new document. Likewise, you can start other OOo components from the command line:

Type of document	Component	Command-line option
Text	Writer	-writer
Spreadsheet	Calc	-calc
Drawing	Draw	-draw
Presentation	Impress	-impress
Formula	Math	-math
Web page	Writer	-web

To see a list of options you can use when starting Writer at the command line, type:

soffice -?

Below is a list of some of the more popular options.

Option	Description
-help	Get a complete list of options.
-nologo	Do not show the startup screen.
-show <odp-file>	Start presentation immediately.
-view <documents ...>	Open documents in viewer (read-only) mode.
-minimized	Start OOo minimized.
-norestore	Suppress restart/restore after fatal errors.
-invisible	No startup screen, no default document and no UI. This is useful for third-party applications that use functionality provided by OOo.

If you have a customized version of OOo (such as the one provided by Linux Mandrake or Gentoo), you can start Writer by typing at the command line:

oowriter