Comment 2 for bug 1328217

The Middle Mouse Button Drag is IMHO the easiest method with Inkscape 0.48.4, but according to <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/View-Pan.html> you can also activate Space Bar+Left Mouse Drag thanks to an option in the Inkscape preferences, but it prevents using the Space Bar to toggle between tools (the manual also gives some other useful shortcuts)

Note that Space Bar + Move works in the next major revision (0.91, currently under development), and that the tools toggle issue is fixed (see Bug #383871 "Let space switch to selector tool even when used for panning").