Please a sample file, if not I can't test this bug. Thanks

I tried this on Windows 7 with the Jane Austen font installed and was not able to replicate this reliably for Impress 3.4.1 or Build: AOO400m2(Build:9801) - Rev 1489073.

I did get a crash once with steps that seemed very similar to Rob's reported steps, however I tried replicating those steps and was not ever able to make it happen again.

The Jane Austen font is available from the following website, free of charge for non-commercial use: http://www.pia-frauss.de/fonts/JaneAusten.zip

I followed these steps:

1. Install Jane Austen font from http://www.pia-frauss.de/fonts/JaneAusten.zip

2. Launch OpenOffice

3. Click on Presentation document

4. Click on Create button to create a new empty presentation

5. Create a text box in the document and draw it someplace in the document

6. Type Test <return> Test <return> Test <return>

7. Highlight the text and select the Jane Austen font

8. Select custom animation through the Slideshow menu

9. Click add and then okay

10. Select the word test in the custom animation box and click on the "..." just above it

11. In the dialog box that appears, click on the dropdown for Text Animation and choose "Letter by Letter"

12. Click ok

Result: The custom animation is saved properly and the document doesn't crash

I am not able to reproduce the bug reported by Rob Weir.

I failed to reproduce this using Rob Weir's and hintbw's steps in OpenOffice 4.1.0 or 3.4.1. 
I used a Dell Laptop with a Core i5 processor, 6GB RAM and 64 bit Windows 8.1

Bug Advocacy student.

Operation System: Windows 7 x64, Windows 8 Pro x64
Open Office: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.0 
AOO410m18(Build:9764)  -  Rev. 1589052
2014-04-22 11:43:54 (Di, 22 Apr 2014)

I was able to repro this issue with such steps:

1. Create a new presentation
2. Write some text (e.g. Test) in the title (or in another textbox) of first slide
3. Click on Title box (with entered text) to select it
4. Add any custom animation with Effect, Timing and Text Animation tabs (e.g. Appear, Box, Circle, etc)
5. Invoke Effect options. Timing tab. Choose: Start effect on click of: "Title text Test1 : Test"
6. Text Animation tab. Choose: Group text: "As one object"
7. Click Ok
==>
Impress crashes

Created attachment 83543 [details]
EffectOption_TextAnimation

Created attachment 83544 [details]
EffectOptions_Timing

HICCUPPS consistency analysis that should clarify the importance of this bug for stakeholders: 

Consistent within product:
Yes. Adding the animation to any other objects in Impress could be done in the same way.

Consistent with comparable products:
No. I was able to successfully do the same steps in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

Consistent with history:
Yes. Original report was for 3.4.1 version of OpenOffice

Consistent with company image:
No.  OpenOffice organization wants to present itself as open-source, free and worthy competitor to paid products with the same capabilities. And it shouldn't crash.

Consistent with claims:
No. Documentation presents OpenOffice as a reliable manufacturer.

Consistent with user’s expectations:
No. User could lose unsaved data after this behavior.

Consistent with Purpose:
No. This behavior is not that user expects.

The result of consistency analysis.
The issue is consistent with product history but inconsistent with other heuristics.

Reproduced following comment 4, need to do both changes in one open dialog, else works. Crash is in sd/source/ui/animations/CustomAnimationPane.cxx:1807, looks as if pTextGroup is NULL and needs to be checked...

Grepping...

Fopund, secured null-pointer usages of pTextGroup. Checked functionality, could not find any errors. Comitted, done.

"alg" committed SVN revision 1604147 into trunk:
i121410 Secured usage of pTextGroup