I learned to do use inkscap a little with the .45 version a while back, now I hear that .46 is available. Is it easyto use .46 if you learned on .45, what are the differences between the two and how major are they?

Cool new stuff was added. Nothing significant was changed.
RTFM.

There are no changes you should find jarring - it's mostly all new features that you can choose to ignore if you please.

Read Inkscape 0.46 release notes for a full list of changes

I've tried 0.46 a few times, but I find it more unstable than 0.45. Not sure why, but it seems to crash much more frequently for me.

llogg wrote:I've tried 0.46 a few times, but I find it more unstable than 0.45. Not sure why, but it seems to crash much more frequently for me.

ctrl+s
ctrl+s
ctrl+s
ctrl+s...

inkscape.exe
open recent

Well inkscape .45 was crashing every 5 or so *&@!ing minutes for me, so I hope .46 is better.

BTW, is there a users manual for .46 yet? And what is the best free pdf inkspace manual out there since people here are likely to know.

SureWhyNot wrote:

llogg wrote:I've tried 0.46 a few times, but I find it more unstable than 0.45. Not sure why, but it seems to crash much more frequently for me.

ctrl+s
ctrl+s
ctrl+s
ctrl+s...

inkscape.exe
open recent

don't be a snot. just because frequent saving (which i do) would mean less work lost doesn't make it less annoying.

I've gotten sorta used to it. When I reopen a file after a crash, I pat myself on the back cuz' I've only lost a second or two of work. (Literally. I save like I have OCD )

I just had .46 crash on me. So why does inkscape crash so much? I mean, it's a nice program that has a lot of features, I honestly can't figure out why the people who write it, and who are obviously intelligent and talented, can't make stability one of those features...

In the Help menu for 0.46 are links to many resources, including the same tutorials as in previous versions, plus the tavjmong Manual, What's new in this version, FAQ, How to report a bug, and many more. I'm sorry, I don't know about a pdf manual.

For me, 0.46 only crashes when using the Effects menu, which is typically too advanced for me anyway. Otherwise, it's performed well.

I might add that I was a mostly novice Inkscape user, when 0.46 came out, and was hesitant to upgrade as well. I still remember the trend, back in the late 90's for new versions of software to be radically different than its predecessors. I was a new computer user altogether, back then, and for goodness sakes, it would take days, even weeks sometimes, to learn how to use a new version of something. It was so awful, that to this day, I put off upgrading anything. But these days, thankfully, "backwards compatability" is the rule, and new versions are almost always recognizable and mostly identical to its "parent".

So no worries, you'll do fine!
Give it a try

SureWhyNot wrote: I save like I have OCD )

The Beautiful Denial Land

Zardoz wrote:I just had .46 crash on me. So why does inkscape crash so much? I mean, it's a nice program that has a lot of features, I honestly can't figure out why the people who write it, and who are obviously intelligent and talented, can't make stability one of those features...

It's because few users properly report the crashes they get. A good report should include the SVG file and the detailed steps to reproduce (and yes, you need to spend some time experimenting in order to figure out those steps). If a crash is indeed reproducible from your report, it is nearly certain to be fixed by the next version.