How to set preferences in Inkscape?

[maisieinforestburg]

Hi, I'd like to set preferences so that every time I open a new document it is set at 8 x 10", portrait. Can I do that?

Thanks!

[Lazur]

Hi.

Yes, you can.
Templates are located in inkscape/share/templates, with a readme

This folder contains the templates for new documents created in Inkscape. You will
normally see them listed in the File > New submenu. A template may store any
document-specific settings (such as initial zoom and view, paper size, background and
borders, metadata, window geometry, grid and guide settings, export hints) as well as
any objects. To add a new template, simply save or copy it in this folder; nothing else
is required.

Files of the mask default.*.svg are the translations of default.svg template into
different languages. The default.svg itself is in English. These translations contain
a translated name of the default layer and possibly different canvas size. Each
language version of Inkscape will only use one of these templates and ignore the rest.

Internationalization

This file is internationalized the same way as share/filters/filters/svg
The i18n.py script called from the makefile will extract strings from the *.svg
into a *.svg.h file. Intltool is then able to extracts these strings just like
from normal .h files.

So if you overwrite the default svg with a document of the right page size and settings it should work.

Haven't tried it myself. There is a better option to save templates somewhere in the hidden appdata folder on windows but not sure the default template can be called from there.

[Moini]

A user-defined default svg should reside in userspace, else they will be overwritten with a future update.
It is not good practice to modify *any* files in the share directory (unless you know exactly what you're doing).

@Maisie: Look up your user configuration directory in Edit > Preferences > System > User config .
In that folder, create a directory with the name 'templates'. There, save your improved custom template as default.svg .

Also see this article for a detailed guide with pictures: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/using-templates-in-inkscape

For the non-English users, please save your custom templates as default.<your two letter language code here>.svg , eg. default.de.svg for German.

[flamingolady]

As a note, things seemed to have changed since at least v 92.  I'm on a really old pc and saving my default didn't work - evidently the latter version assumes the user is the pc owner (I share my pc, and I'm a user not the owner).  Can't remember entirely the order I did things - experimented until it updated, but I think it didn't work until I placed it in the share/template on my hubby's pc.  Probably should have started with his.  And still not sure why my app data didn't kick in first. 
I always change my default, sizing, # layers, no border shadow, zoom, etc.  It's pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it.

[maisieinforestburg]

A user-defined default svg should reside in userspace, else they will be overwritten with a future update.
It is not good practice to modify *any* files in the share directory (unless you know exactly what you're doing).

@Maisie: Look up your user configuration directory in Edit > Preferences > System > User config .
In that folder, create a directory with the name 'templates'. There, save your improved custom template as default.svg .

Also see this article for a detailed guide with pictures: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/using-templates-in-inkscape

For the non-English users, please save your custom templates as default.<your two letter language code here>.svg , eg. default.de.svg for German.

My edit in inkscape has no preferences - am I looking in the wrong place? Also, when I go to save as, I can't find  %APPDATA%\\Inkscape........what is that? Is that a folder in my computer?

[Moini]

Are you using Inkscape 0.48? That version had the preferences in the 'File' menu, they've been moved to Edit in 0.91 (we're on 0.92.2 currently, so you'd be at least 4 versions behind). Probably updating would be a good idea, if there's no compelling reason (some newly introduced bug, or incompatibility with an outdated extension) to stay with 0.48.
Get the current version from https://inkscape.org/releases

[maisieinforestburg]

Yes, I am using .48
I had downloaded a 64 bit.exe for windows newer version at the link you're showing, but the document properties were broken, and I downloaded it again, and the same thing was happening, so I went back to the older version.....
I don't know why the new version was broken or how to fix it.

[maisieinforestburg]

I don't know where to find the configuration directory in Edit > Preferences > System > User config

When I go to file in .48 version, yes I see preferences there - what is shows when I press preferences is the jpg attached

[maisieinforestburg]

Can I not save a template instead of trying to create a default template? I can't seem to type in the location inkscape/share/templates to save a template in........what am I doing wrong? I've attached a pic of what I'm seeing when trying to save this 8x10 blank page.

...........Ok, I found out how to save the template.......never mind.....

[Moini]

Mmh, we could probably have helped with the newer version... Anyway, glad you figured it out! Please be aware that it's more difficult for us to help with an outdated version.