In "Fill and Stroke" dialogue box (Shift+Ctrl+F) I have a lot of not needed dash styles. After finding out how to add the ones I need with the preferences.xml file I want to delete all the other ones.

I thought deleting them in the preferences.xml file would do the trick but it does not. As soon as I restart all the default dash styles are back in.

Where (else) does Inkscape get the style info or how do I delete an unwanted dash style properly?

Looks like they are hard-coded coded in based on ID.

So while you cannot delete the standard IDs, you can re-write the standard numeric sequences to your custom styles at the top of the list and ignore the remainder of the pick list.
e.g. solid is always at the top


Can be re-written:


Do this at your own risk.

Hard coded ... i feared it was so. Would have made life a little easier if not ... but who said it would be easy

Anyway thanks for the help.