Hi John,

I find that having the "Fill and Stroke" panel and "Align and Distribute" panel are my most frequently used panels - I have them therefore "docked" on the right of my inkscape and open all the time:

If you don't get them docked (i.e. they are a floating window), you can click on the title "fill and stroke" and drag it to the sidebar.

I also frequently jump back to the "select" tool by pressing "S", which allows me to select and move objects around the "page".

There is an excellent set of tutorials on how to use Inkscape here: https://inkscape.org/en/learn/tutorials/

The tutorials allowed me to really learn Inkscape to the point that I think I am quite capable in using inkscape, and have in fact created some professionally printed certificates for a non-profit I am a member of.

-Chris

On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 9:10 AM, John Sampson <jrs.idx@...3210...> wrote:

I meant that I would have decided to uninstall Inkscape if I had not discovered this strange default.

I have never used the "Last used style" option nor loaded any document that would set it. There must be something else that causes it to be set that way.

Regards

John Sampson

On 08/03/2016 16:47, Arlo Barnes wrote:
On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 8:00 AM, John Sampson <jrs.idx@...3210...> wrote:

I suppose when one starts Inkscape with a new document, "Last used style" will be nil, so logically nothing should happen when one tries to draw a shape.

I have never seen this reasoning applied in software before.

This was my last throw before deciding to uninstall Inkscape.

I am sorry you are having trouble. I would encourage you to consider giving it another try, but if that is not in the cards, best of luck with whatever other software you decide to use.
I would like to say that what you posited above is not the way Inkscape works. "Last used style" is held over from the previous documents unless you change that preference, (and now that you have changed that preference there should be no problem) and the very first time you opened Inkscape it used the default (1px black, miter corners, IIRC) and made that the "last used style" until you changed it to whatever you needed for that document. Indeed, if you gave an object transparent or no fill and stroke, it would not be visible, and that would be the "last used style", but it is easy to change that by restyling.
Anyway, if you decide to persist, this list is generally quite helpful.

-Arlo James Barnes

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