OpenOffice won't display small fonts!

Hi all, I have a problem with OpenOffice on SuSE 8.1. I can't see small font sizes on my screen. For example, if a sentence is written in 8pt fonts and the zoom factor for the screen is 100%, I can't see the sentence (it's as if it isn't there), whereas a sentence just below it which is written in 12pt fonts is shown just fine. If I change the zoom factor to 150%, I can see both sentences. Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Alexandros