diff --git a/officecfg/registry/schema/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xcs b/officecfg/registry/schema/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xcs
index e8a9fae680a5..0e645ad9b9e1 100644
--- a/officecfg/registry/schema/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xcs
+++ b/officecfg/registry/schema/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xcs
@@ -851,6 +851,13 @@
       <info>
         <desc>Contains settings for VCL.</desc>
       </info>
+      <prop oor:name="TextLayoutEngine" oor:type="xs:string" oor:nillable="false">
+        <info>
+	   <desc>Specifies which text layout engine should be use. Possible
+		 values are ("old", "new").</desc>
+        </info>
+        <value>new</value>
+      </prop>
       <prop oor:name="UseOpenGL" oor:type="xs:boolean" oor:nillable="false">
         <info>
            <desc>Specifies if OpenGL rendering should be used in VCL backends
diff --git a/vcl/source/gdi/sallayout.cxx b/vcl/source/gdi/sallayout.cxx
index 2e09aaf45436..ef9bbc01b7f8 100644
--- a/vcl/source/gdi/sallayout.cxx
+++ b/vcl/source/gdi/sallayout.cxx
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@
 
 #include <i18nlangtag/lang.h>
 
+#include <officecfg/Office/Common.hxx>
+
 #include <tools/debug.hxx>
 #include <vcl/svapp.hxx>
 
@@ -770,7 +772,8 @@ bool SalLayout::IsSpacingGlyph( sal_GlyphId nGlyph )
 
 bool SalLayout::UseCommonLayout()
 {
-    static bool bUse = getenv("SAL_NO_COMMON_LAYOUT") == nullptr;
+    static bool bUse = (getenv("SAL_NO_COMMON_LAYOUT") == nullptr) &&
+                       (officecfg::Office::Common::VCL::TextLayoutEngine::get() == "new");
     return bUse;
 }