Q1: Can someone please tell me how to draw a simple white box with a black line border (just like drawing on a piece of paper with a pen)?  Searching this site for "solid line" produced about 3 results, none of which had the solution  (And is there a way to set that as inkscapes default behavior?)

I've spent at least an hour reading and clicking in inkscape (mostly in the 'Fill and Stroke' menu) trying to obtain a simple border around shapes.  I thought it must be the "Dashes" field under "Stroke Style", and one of the forum replies confirmed it.  But that field is greyed out meaning I cannot select or change it.

Finally, due to my trial and error by clicking things, the settings are no longer at default, and I cannot see how to 'reset' them.  So I uninstalled, then reinstalled inkscape to get the 'fresh' settings back, But the second installation retained settings of the first installation!

Q2: Can I remove 'everything' so I a reinstall will reset the original settings?

Don't cry!  🙈

Q1: I suggest stepping through Inkscape's interactive tutorials in the Help menu, to get a good foundation.

Q2: in the Preferences dialog there is a reset button in the System page.

Thanks. I did look at each chapter heading and clicked on a few headings that seemed they might be what I need, like 'Fill and Stroke' and 'Wireframe' I think another was. But I couldn't find anything mentioned about solid lines around shapes rather than no lines with fills.  I've already been using the program and most of the tools are very similar to Coreldraw.  So this line thing was literally the only thing I needed to export the image I needed to email to someone.  Unfortunately I've spent the entire night trying out different software, and don't have a couple of days left to go through the entire manual to discover what they've called the tool that makes a simple black line.  (It's really weird it's not the default setting.  Even severely limited software like MS Paint draws shapes with a black border on first use..)  Anyway, I'll run out of time soon, so thanks again.  I'll spend another couple of minutes seeing if I can maybe fill each section with a different color to distinguish where the lines should have been.  If that doesn't work out I guess I'll just have to draw it by hand then take a photo.

I'm not sure why you can't get what you want. Can  you try the following couple of steps, just to see what you can achive...

Click on the rectangle tool then drag your mouse over the canvas to draw the shape. Now go to the Fill & Stroke panel. With the rectangle selected (just click it once to select), on the Fill tab select a colour of your choice. Now click the Stroke tab, and select a colour again. Finally, go to Stroke style. Make sure the value in the Width tab is greater than zero, then in the Dashes box, make sure the first option - a solid line - is selected. Does this give you a rectangle with a border?

Another thing to try is basically same as above, except draw the shape with the Bezier tool. Select the  Bezier tool from the icons down the left side, then draw a rough rectangular shape on the canvas. Make sure you 'close' the shape - in other words, your final click should be on top of the first node. The node will turn into a red box as you hover above it. Once you've got the shape, repeat the steps above with the Fill, Stroke & Stroke Style tabs. Does this get you what you need?

If your stroke (or fill) isn't showing, you've possibly got transparency set on your colours somewhere. There are a couple of places to check... On the Fill tab, look where it says 'Flat colour', and there are four horizontal blocks of colour underneath with single letter labels at the left hand side. Look for the bottom block with the label 'A'. Make sure this is set to 100. You'll need to check this on the Stroke tab too. Also, at the bottom of the Fill & Stroke panel, there are sliders for Blur & Opacity. Make sure Blur is 0 and Opacity is 100. Finally, if you have the Layers panel open, there are Blur & Opacity sliders again which apply to the entire layer (rather than single objects). Make sure these are at 0 for Blur and 100 for opacity again.

So, does any of this allow you to create a box filled with a solid colour and a different coloured border? If not, perhaps post a screenshot showing what you get, plus include the open Fill & Stroke panel settings.

FamilyMan

I did look at each chapter heading and clicked on a few headings that seemed they might be what I need, like 'Fill and Stroke' and 'Wireframe' I think another was. But I couldn't find anything mentioned about solid lines around shapes rather than no lines with fills. 

Sounds like you may have perused the Manual, rather than the built-in tutorials. They are quick and easy, but contain many commonly used operations.

Sorry, but I have the same issue.

I think I understand @FamelyMan.

Once I use the Rectangle Tool, I see a rectangle with a certain size (h, v) and a "rectangle outline" in grey.

I can set the stroke details (colour, size) , but I cannot get the "rectangle outline" disappear or change its appearance. I have a work-around using the Draw Freehand tool and make a closed path. But that is in essence not the same and very cumbersome.

One way or another I started off with the pre-assumption that the rectangle tool is a shortcut to create a closed path consisting of straight hor en ver lines with 90 degrees corners. But come to the conclusion that this is not the case.

See the picture below: green is the rectangle with green stroke but behind it this grey "rectable outline". The latter one is not changeable, at least not to me.

I'd love to find a solution.

Thanks,

Balvie

@balvie That´s not normal. Can you check Status Bar for any hints about that rectangle; i.e. any filters applied etc?

Thanks for respnding so quickly.

I have to admit that I was somewhat too eager to send the messsage above.

The problem does not show anymore. During the investigation I did a Reset Preferences using Edit-Preferences-System. This morning I quit Inkscape totally and restarted. Now it works as I asssumed it should. Sorry to have caused any inconveneance.

Keep up the good work (as moderator and helper).

Open source is experiencing exiting times and is the only force that can compete with bigtech. I made tradition to donate to all FOSS projects that I use once a year at the occasion of my birthday.

balvie

I did a Reset Preferences using Edit-Preferences-System.

That would have been my next advice: https://inkscape.org/forums/questions/getting-back-to-square-one-and-starting-over-its-easy/

I found this thread in searching for a solution to this same problem, dashes as a rectangle outline rather than a solid line.  I discovered after a bit of frustrated fiddling that I had a mostly transparent gradient active.  When I turned it off, which also required some fiddling, the solid line properly displayed.

It'll take me a while to get used to Inkscape.  It has so many interactive attributes and operations for each and every object that a new user is easily undercut, flummoxed or surprised.