I ran into some problems with OpenOffice the other day, here’s a fix / solution to the problem “requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) to perform this task”.
1. Step Open Office and confirm the error message:
2. Step Great, now click on Tools – Options
3. Step Uncollapse OpenOffice.org and select the subitem Java
4. Step The program may list Java runtime environments JRE that are already installed. Select it e.g. Sun Microsystems Inc. Version 1.6.0_31 – this is JRE u31 (update 31)
5. Step Confirm the selection with Ok
6. Step (OPTIONAL) Optionally, if no JRE is listed, download Java from here and then make sure to reboot after installing it, then repeat step 1-4 again. If it’s still not listed you may want to verify that the Java installer you downloaded is not corrupt or that it installed properly
For me this fixed the issue and I am no longer getting the annoying error message OpenOffice.org requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) to perform this task