By starting Office software from the command line you can assign various parameters, with which you can influence the performance. The use of command line parameters is only recommended for experienced users.

For normal handling, the use of command line parameters is not necessary. A few of the parameters require a deeper knowledge of the technical background of Office software technology.

Starting Office Software From the Command Line

Search for Run in the Windows Start menu.
Type the following text in the Open text field and click OK.
"{install}\program\soffice.com" {parameter}

Replace {install} with the path to your installation of Office software (for example, C:\Program Files\Office). Use soffice.exe instead of soffice.com, when you do not need console (e.g., you do not use command-line interface for headless operations).

Open a shell under Linux, *BSD, or macOS platforms.
Type the following line of text, then press Return:

{install}/program/soffice {parameter}

Replace {install} with the path to your installation of Office software (for example, /opt/Office in UNIX)

Valid Command Line Parameters

Using without special arguments

Using without any arguments opens the start centre.

{file}	Tries to open the file (files) in the components suitable for them.
{file} macro:///[Library.Module.MacroName]	Opens the file and applies specified macros from the file.

Getting help and information

Parameter	Meaning
--help / -h / -?	Lists the available command line parameters to the console.
--helpwriter	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Writer.
--helpcalc	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Calc.
--helpdraw	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Draw.
--helpimpress	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Impress.
--helpbase	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Base.
--helpbasic	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Basic scripting language.
--helpmath	Opens Office built-in or online Help on Math.
--version	Shows Office version and quits.
--nstemporarydirectory	(macOS sandbox only) Returns path of the temporary directory for the current user and exits. Overrides all other arguments.

General arguments

Parameter	Meaning
--quickstart[=no]	Activates[Deactivates] the Quickstarter service. It can take only one parameter no which deactivates the Quickstarter service. Without parameters this service is activated.
--nolockcheck	Disables check for remote instances using the installation.
--infilter=InputFilterName [:InputFilterParam[,param]]	Forces an input filter type, if possible. For example: --infilter="Calc Office Open XML" --infilter="Text (encoded):UTF8,LF,Liberation Mono,en-US". See the list of document filters for file conversion. The list of filter options for Lotus, dBase and Diff files. The list of filter options for CSV files.
--pidfile={file}	Store soffice.bin pid to {file}.
--display {display}	Sets the DISPLAY environment variable on UNIX-like platforms to the value {display}. This parameter is only supported by the start script for Office software on UNIX-like platforms.

User/programmatic interface control

Parameter	Meaning
--nologo	Disables the splash screen at program start.
--minimized	Starts minimised. The splash screen is not displayed.
--nodefault	Starts without displaying anything except the splash screen.
--invisible	Starts in invisible mode. Neither the start-up logo nor the initial program window will be visible. Office software can be controlled, and documents and dialogs can be controlled and opened via the API. Using the parameter, Office can only be ended using the Task Manager (Windows) or the kill command (UNIX-like systems). It cannot be used in conjunction with --quickstart. More information is found in Office Developer's Guide.
--headless	Starts in "headless mode" which allows using the application without user interface. This special mode can be used when the application is controlled by external clients via the API.
--norestore	Disables restart and file recovery after a system crash.
--safe-mode	Starts in a safe mode, i.e. starts temporarily with a fresh user profile and helps to restore a broken configuration.
--accept={UNO}	Notifies Office software that upon the creation of "UNO Acceptor Threads", a "UNO Accept String" will be used. UNO-URL is string the such kind uno:connection-type,params;protocol-name,params;ObjectName. More information is found in Office Developer's Guide.
--unaccept={UNO-URL}	Closes an acceptor that was created with --accept={UNO-URL}. Use --unaccept=all to close all open acceptors.
--language={lang}	Uses specified language, if language is not selected yet for UI. The lang is a tag of the language in IETF language tag.

Developer arguments

Parameter	Meaning
--terminate-after-init	Exit after initialisation complete (no documents loaded).
--eventtesting	Exit after loading documents.

Unix and Linux user can invoke Office with these additional parameters for debugging purposes.

Parameter	Meaning
--record	An enhanced debugger.
--backtrace	Prints the backtrace of the entire stack.
--strace	strace is a diagnostic, debugging and instructional user-space utility for Linux.
--valgrind	Automatically detect many memory management and threading bugs, and profile the program in detail.

The debug options --record, --backtrace, --strace and --valgrind cannot be used together. Please use them one by one.

New document creation arguments

The arguments create an empty document of specified kind. Only one of them may be used in one command line. If filenames are specified after an argument, then it tries to open those files in the specified component.

Parameter	Meaning
--writer	Starts with an empty Writer document.
--calc	Starts with an empty Calc document.
--draw	Starts with an empty Draw document.
--impress	Starts with an empty Impress document.
--math	Starts with an empty Math document.
--global	Starts with an empty Writer master document.
--web	Starts with an empty HTML document.

File open arguments

The arguments define how following filenames are treated. New treatment begins after the argument and ends at the next argument. The default treatment is to open documents for editing, and create new documents from document templates.

Parameter	Meaning
-n	Treats following files as templates for creation of new documents.
-o	Opens following files for editing, regardless whether they are templates or not.
--pt {Printername}	Prints the following files to the printer {Printername} and ends. The splash screen does not appear. If the file name contains spaces, then it must be enclosed by quotation marks. If used multiple times, only last {Printername} is effective for all documents of all --pt runs. Also, --printer-name argument of --print-to-file switch interferes with {Printername}.
-p	Prints following files to the default printer, after which those files are closed. The splash screen does not appear. If the file name contains spaces, then it must be enclosed in quotation marks.
--view	Opens following files in viewer mode (read-only).
--show	Opens and starts the following presentation documents of each immediately. Files are closed after the showing. Files other than Impress documents are opened in default mode, regardless of previous mode.
--convert-to OutputFileExtension [:OutputFilterName [:OutputFilterParams[,param]]] [--outdir output-dir]	If --convert-to is used more than once, last value of OutputFileExtension[:OutputFilterName[:OutputFilterParams]] is effective. If --outdir is used more than once, only its last value is effective. For example: --convert-to pdf .doc --convert-to pdf:writer-pdf-Export --outdir /home/user .doc --convert-to "html:XHTML Writer File:UTF8" .doc --convert-to "txt:Text (encoded):UTF8" .doc See the list of document filters for file conversion. The list of filter options for Lotus, dBase and Diff files. The list of filter options for CSV files.
--print-to-file [--printer-name printer-name] [--outdir output-dir]	Batch print files to file. If --outdir is not specified, then current working directory is used as output-dir. If --printer-name or --outdir used multiple times, only last value of each is effective. Also, {Printername} of --pt switch interferes with --printer-name. For example: --print-to-file .doc --print-to-file --printer-name nasty-lowres-printer --outdir /home/user .doc
--cat	Applies filter "txt:Text" to the following text documents and dump text content to console (implies --headless). Cannot be used with --convert-to.
-env:VAR[=VALUE]	Set a bootstrap variable. For example, to set a non-default user profile path: soffice.com -env:UserInstallation=file:///c:/my-test-profile soffice -env:UserInstallation=file:///tmp/test

Ignored switches

Parameter	Meaning
-psn	Ignored (macOS only)
-Embedding	Ignored (COM+ related; Windows only)
--nofirststartwizard	Does nothing, accepted only for backward compatibility.
--protector {arg1} {arg2}	Used only in unit tests and should have two arguments.

Starting Office Software With ParametersStarting Office Software From the Command Line Valid Command Line Parameters Using without special arguments Getting help and information General arguments User/programmatic interface control Developer arguments New document creation arguments File open arguments Ignored switches