Probably the wrong place to ask it, but here it goes...

In previous releases, I could go Shift+Ctrl+D, and under Alignment (or something like it) I could align objects either by vertex or bounding box, just to some range and etc, and now in 0.47 they lack some options and what it has is not working for me. (Sorry for naming the shortcut, but my version is translated and i dont want to misname the tools)

I have to rely on Shift+Ctrl+A which means I have a lot more buttons but not as many options - and what I would do fairly quickly by dragging now takes me much longer...

I know my difficulty probably comes from lack of skill, but... why did they change it? Those tools have been there forever, and supposedly people grew accustomed to them. It doesn't seem to me as a beneficial nor necessary change, so why did it got changed?

tested with Inkscape 0.46 and Inkscape 0.47:

Shift+Ctrl+D opens the 'Document Properties' dialog in both versions, no alignment options here.
Shift+Ctrl+A opens the 'Align and Distribute…' dialog in both versions.

Inkscape 0.46 had an inconsistency/bug in that in the 'Align and Distribute…' dialog it displayed the node alignment options too when opened the first time with the select tool active. These options however only apply to aligning nodes of a single path while node-editing it with the node-tool. You couldn't use it in Inkscape 0.46 either when you had multiple objects selected with the select tool.

IMHO nothing has changed between the last two versions except that the 'Align and Distribute…' dialog now correctly shows only those options that are applicable to the current selection. 'Align and Distribute…' always aligns objects/selections with their bounding box (be it visual or geometric).

But maybe you are not talking about the alignment dialog, but about snapping? Yes, the snapping options have been moved from the 'Document Properties' dialog to their own snapping toolbar, which is displayed as second toolbar from the top per default, for easier access to the much enhanced snapping options. Please read more about the new and improved snapping features of Inkscape 0.47 in the release notes and in the manual:

• Release notes 0.47 - Editing Aids - Grids, Guides, Snapping
• Inkscape » Positioning and Transforming » Snapping

k

druban wrote:Can anyone tell me what the 'action' is that corresponds to pulling down the view menu to show/hide the snap toolbar

All available actions (aka verbs) are listed in 'inkscape\share\keys\default.xml'. If it isn't listed there (I could not find it) someone needs to add a verb (and provide a patch ;) or you could file a RFE to add verbs for all or selected 'View > Show/Hide' submenu entries (I haven't searched yet if such a report already exists).