How do I create holes in shapes?
This was easy in OpenOffice, is it possible in Inkscape?
Draw a rectangle, and another rectangle inside it. Select both, and go to Path > Difference. Voila, a hole in your rectangle.
If you don't like menu commands, you can just hit Ctrl+- (that's control dash, or, semantically speaking, control minus)
Still nowhere near Illustrator, but at least someone got this project rolling.