I don't know if this is a known issue with Inkscape or not, but mine is now unable to save files. When I was just playing around with it, I was able to go to file and save as, pick file formats and choose where to save the file. Once I did the Swedish flag tutorial, and got the the bit about saving it at the end, nothing would happen when I tried to save. I have tried save, save as, save as copy. Nothing even brings up the dialog box. Even when I close the document and it warns that unsaved items may be lost and I click save, nothing happens. Sometimes the program seems to blink a bit, but no dialog box comes up. No file is saved. This is very frustrating should I ever decide to actually use this program. Should I try to go through the installation again, or is there a known way to fix this?

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There is a bug only with Windows and Inkscape 0.48.2 where if you save a file to a root directory (i.e. C or flash drive), the next time you edit, the Save As dialog will not show up. I'm not clear from your description of the problem if it's the same as this bug. If you did save the image to a C drive or flash drive, or any root directory, and you're on Windows, and you don't get the Save As dialog, then the solution is not to save to a root directory. I'm not clear if moving the image to a folder instead of the root would solve it. The good news is that the problem has already been fixed, and the next stable release (0.48.3 due out this year) will work fine. So assuming this is the same bug, you would just need to remember to install the current stable release, whenever you decide to pick up Inkscape again

For example, I am mainly using inkscape to trace my line drawings so I can use them in photoshop. I import the .bmp file, apply the trace, remove the old file. Try to save New document 1 as the line drawing I want and... no save dialog box. No way to save, at all! Even if I make a design from scratch, like the swedish flag tutorial, it cannot save. I can choose save as, or save as copy and no dialog box comes up at all. Is there any patch I can use because this problem makes this program completely unusable. I was able to do it with the first one I tried, but since then I cannot save anything. Even with reinstalling the software again.

Is the BMP file saved in a root directory, like C or a flash drive?
Are you on Windows, and do you have Inkscape 0.48.2?
On originally drawn SVGs, are you trying to save TO a root directory such a C or a flash drive?

IF this is the same bug I was describing (not sure since you didn't confirm any info) it has already been fixed, and the next stable release (0.48.3 due out this year) won't have this problem. Until then, you could go back to 0.48.1, as long as none of the bug fixes in 0.48.2 apply to you. If you need some feature specific to 0.48.2, all you can do is wait for 0.48.3, unfortunately.

If you have some other operating system or Inkscape version, please let us know.