Help, please. I feel like a newbie. I can't get Inkscape to work.

Win7 laptop;
Wacom Bamboo tablet;
Inkscape 0.48.1;
From Inkscape's Windows Installer download;

Experienced Macromedia Freehand user, now frustrated with Adobe Illustrator and pricing.

I wouild really love a good vector drawing program. I would appreciate SVG, PNG, and other output options, either for work destined for on-screen (web) or in-print (traditional print media).

But Inkscape won't put shapes on the drawing page!

I get a small program window that won't remember from session to session to be maximized to my screen.

I can select a fill color, but I don't see where to set colors or swatches to create custom colors or color-lists.

I can't find where to set the stroke color or thickness, and what I've tried does nothing.

I've clicked on the rectange and ellipse tools, to draw a shape on the drawing board (the page area, not the desk) and...nothing shows up. Black or red fill, apparently no stroke set, and no apparent shapes drawn.

In the top-right corner of the workspace, it shows a red fill and a black stroke and a 1. Yet at the bottom left, it shows N/A for fill and stroke, even with a shape tool selected. Clicking into Preferences from the top-right again shows a red fill but says stroke is Unset.

I'm mystified. Where do I set these? I can't use the program like this. -- And I feel foolish, because I should be able to figure out and solve what's going on, yet nothing I've tried has any effect.

The menu highlight color doesn't color the background (inverse or color change) and the text color becomes...something so pale I can't see it against the light menu color. On mouse out, it returns to black text.

I have tried uninstalling Inkscape and having it remove the preferences. I have re-downloaded and re-installed. No luck.

I'd really like to know what to do, so I can give this a fair try. I've heard good things from three friends online who've used Inkscape. I realize it's still in development.

Honestly, I feel silly. But I want to get the program working, if possible.

Meanwhile, I'll have to find other programs to try. I don't want a strictly web-based program, as I am not always able to be online via wifi or wire or 3g/4g. I can't afford Adobe's upgrade costs, and I'm having to learn Illustrator's strange new interface. Strange and new to me, because way back in the stone age, its interface was similar to Freehand, with which I was comfortable, until Adobe's installer refused to put Freehand on my new machine.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, it's a bit tricky getting tablets to work with Inkscape. But never fear! It is possible!
I thought we had a link in this topic, to some of those on getting tablets working with Inkscape, but I sure don't see it. I will try to find out what happened to it. But meanwhile, if you would search the forum for Wacom tablet, plus some other key word of your choosing, you will find an abundance of topics about it, and then you can start troubleshooting

Is this strictly a table issue? Have you tried drawing anything with the mouse?

The menu highlight color doesn't color the background (inverse or color change) and the text color becomes...something so pale I can't see it against the light menu color. On mouse out, it returns to black text.

Do you have some kind of systemwide theme installed? Try resetting display control panel to default settings (pick a default theme). Custom text colors can interact poorly with text in some programs.

I get a small program window that won't remember from session to session to be maximized to my screen.

In File menu>Inkscape preferences>windows there is an option to save window grometry (size and position).

In the top-right corner of the workspace, it shows a red fill and a black stroke and a 1. Yet at the bottom left, it shows N/A for fill and stroke, even with a shape tool selected. Clicking into Preferences from the top-right again shows a red fill but says stroke is Unset.

Top right tells you what the next object's style will be with the tool you have chosen. This is the tool control bar. Bottom left tells you the currently selected object's style. If you don't have an object selected (maybe because you can't draw one) then this will be undefined.

I can select a fill color, but I don't see where to set colors or swatches to create custom colors or color-lists.

The object menu accesses the fill and stroke dialog box where you can fine tune any color and also set the stroke etc. The view menu lets you bring up the palette and the swatches. There is at present no way to set new swatches from within inkscape. You can use a text editor and modify the palettes or generate one from the gimp image editing program. At your level of familiarity I don't recommend this right now.
Most of your problems with drawing are from not getting your tablet to work. Try using the mouse first (disconnect the tablet, perhaps?) If everything works with the mouse, connect the tablet, reopen inkscape, go to file menu>input devices and see if your tablet is listed. Sometimes just opening this dialog and clicking in it with the device wakes it up.
Inkscape has a very fine online manual. You will probably need to read it.

Hi, folks, and thanks for the help. I've now found a couple of answers. I'm waiting on another computer op to finish before restarting, to try to answer another question. I'll post on that later in the week.

* Laptop and Desktop: Win7, Firefox 4, Inkscape 0.48.1 (latest of each); Wacom Bamboo Tablet, probably latest drivers; Available by swapping out: standard mouse; Laptop's built-in trackpad;

The Desktop:

Success! With just the mouse, I can get fill and stroke set and actually use the program. Hey, hey! ...Geez... Discovered how to set fill and stroke colors and stroke width in the bottom panel. Hurray. I can draw on at least one machine.

The Laptop: Aha! Convinced it to recognize the built-in trackpad. Awaiting restart to try to have it recognize the Wacom tablet OR a mouse. So far, it hasn't. I dislike trying to use the built-in trackpad, which is flaky on this laptop. (Something about the tolerances of how they place it in the case, I think; poor hardware design.)

The menu highlight background-color and text color issue: No, I haven't changed that in the desktop theme. It appears to be peculiar to Inkscape. No other application program does that. -- If it changed the background-color for menu hover (as it should) along with the text color, such that it has a dark background-color to go with the light foreground/text color, then that would do what's needed. Or use a sufficiently contrasting text color. But a light highlight text color on a light background is not what you want it to do for legibility or accessibility.

--> To Do: Discover if it will recognize and use the tablet. This is essential for any professional who wishes to use the program. Many, like me, would likely not even bother to investigate further if they can't get it to recognize their tablet automatically. I personally would consider that a requirement for a 1.0 release. I use my laptop primarily these days, as I'm back and forth too much. (I'm my grandmother's primary caregiver; I have no life outside of that, at present.)

Yes, I'll RTFM when I can. But a basic usability question is, should a new user have to read the manual to do the basics of the program, if he or she has some experience with computers, the web, and other similar application programs, such as, in this case, a drawing program? No, I'm not trying to be flippant or disrespectful there. I'm asking a basic usability question. If a user of whatever experience level cannot get a program or a tool to do what he/she expects, even after trying multiple ways to get at it, chances are, that user is going to give up in frustration and move to another product, or at least not use that feature.

Update -- Good News / Bad News:

A trip to File -> Input Devices does let me check using the Wacom tablet (duh) -- and then it works! -- until you quit the program. So it doesn''t remember that from session to session, and I'd again argue the 1.0 release should automatically detect the tablet. ( Notice how I (1) Missed(?) seeing it in 0.48.0; (2) Didn't expect it to be there or in Preferences; (3) Had looked in Preferences (under Mouse) and didn't find the tablet there; )

congrats on your recent success getting things to start rolling. Yes, you'll probably need to take a couple of tutorials (there are many to choose from), to get rolling. They are always upgrading Inkscape so pretty much always a need to look at the manual, I use it all the time, still.
I noticed in one post you mentioned Inkscape being 'web based'? Not sure I understand that, as once you download the program, it's a stand alone program.
I'm still using version .47, waiting for some kinks to get un-bugged, and I tire of re-loading programs, lol. It's a great program! (I'm no help in tablets unfortunately).
Welcome to the forums, and we look forward to seeing what you create.
dee

Oh gosh, I'm sorry I lost track of this topic. My apartment's being painted, and I've been away from computer a lot.

Regarding getting the tablet working -- I'm told that the current version of Inkscape works pretty well with tablets, although that has not always been the case, but I'm really hesitant to say it works "flawlessly". Here is a list of topics I made a while back, to help with frequent requests for help. Please keep in mind that not all of the issues are still relevant, and again, as far as I understand there are no serious tablet issues remaining with the current version 0.48.1. But you might find a helpful nugget of insight somewhere.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4107
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3054
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4164
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5448
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4055
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1091
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=471
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3870
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1505
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1771