hello,
problem is i can't see stroke outline of shapes, although it seems to be an outline since stroke start/end and other menus apply to it, but as if outline was always transparent (is not!). i use portable 0.45. thx for help.

Check that the colour of the stroke is a full opacity colour (there are two sliders in the fill and stroke dock that can affect transparency).

checked that, in installed version i don't have this problem although anything i do with sliders on stroke tab seems to affect whole shape not only the stroke. it's suppose to be like that?

I have the same problem. I open or import a square image, and all I want to do is add a stroke/border to it. But I can't. At all. And I've wasted all night trying to do this one stupid thing.

Save the file with the invisible box and post it online so we can download and check the file. Don't forget to describe what you see and what you expect to see in the file.