Problem opening new documents

Hi Alex,

I can come up with two things you could try:

1. Maybe your preferences file (preferences.xml) has been damaged? Did Inkscape crash before this started to happen?

What happens if you rename the preferences file (this will cause Inkscape to create a new one with the correct name, but will also loose all your settings - hence the backup)?

Find the path to your preferences file from inside Inkscape: Edit -> Preferences -> System: User preferences

2. If this doesn't help, then another reason I can imagine is that the template file for your language is damaged.
Look through the files here:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/RELEASE_0_91_BRANCH/files/head:/share/templates/

and copy the one that fits your language into your templates directory (default.svg for English, default.de.svg for German, ... etc.).
If the file already exists (and hasn't been deleted accidentally), rename the original first, so you have a backup.

Hope one of these helps,
 Regards,
 Maren

On 2015-11-10 21:02 (+0100), Alex wrote:
> Every time I open a new document instead of opening "NewDocument1"
> the program opens "Memory Document1" (…)

One reason this can happen: "Memory Document" is the name displayed for a new document Inkscape opens if none of the shared default templates for new documents installed by Inkscape can be found. Possibly you deleted the shared resource files installed (and required) by Inkscape after the installation.

Hey guys,

I definitely have the shared resource file installed. I tried both of Maren's suggestions but neither worked for me. I don't know if this makes a difference or helps to elucidate the problem but when I try to open the default or default_mm templates in inkscape directly from the folder I get an error message saying that it failed to load the selected file. I don't think the preferences file has been damaged but if it had I imagine that reinstalling the program and files as well as selecting the option to erase previous preferences would have solved the problem. It seems like inkscape is just not able to access these specific files in shared resources for some reason.

Thanks,

Alex

Hi Alex,

okay, so then I understand you already reinstalled Inkscape, right?

Currently, this then looks like a permissions problem, or maybe an access problem. Which kind of operating system are you on?

1. Checking permissions:
User files:
Does the user who is starting Inkscape have read access to the files in
- the user file directory indicated in Edit -> Preferences -> System: Inkscape User extensions ?
Did you copy the template into your own user "templates" directory? (you may need to create it first, in the same directory where your user preferences file lives).
What happens if you try to open those user files directly, using a text editor or something similar?

Shared files:
Also check that the user starting Inkscape has read access to the templates files that have been installed with Inkscape.

2. Access:
And, lastly: Are the Inkscape user files / the Inkscape shared resource files on some kind of external or network device?

Kind regards,
 Maern

Ah it was a problem with the user! I forgot that this is my mom's old computer and that her user file has the administrative permissions. I copied the templates into the appdata folder for my user and everything works just fine now!

Thanks so much!

Alex

Ah it was a problem with the user! I forgot that this is my mom's old computer and that her user file has the administrative permissions. I copied the templates into the appdata folder for my user and everything works just fine now!

Thanks so much!

Alex