whats the best way of creating a dashed circle?
i dont want it filled, just the line around it to be dashed.

I would just make the cirkle

and under the stroke options, i'd click dashed and type in the values to i get a line i like

thank you, now all i need to do is get hold of illustrator :D

May I suggest something? Instead of spending all that money or illegally getting it why dont you atleast try this first:

http://download.com.com/3000-2189-10182096.html?tag=lst-0-2

You may be suprised, or you may not like it... but its worth a try.