: Inkscape: Text within rectangle can't be moved, copied, duplicated, or grouped I created some flowed-text within a rectangle using this page. When I try to move it, the rectangle breaks up

@Megan533

Posted in: #Inkscape

I created some flowed-text within a rectangle using this page. When I try to move it, the rectangle breaks up into two disparately located rectangles, which are no longer colocated with the text. The location of all these elements seem somewhat random. The same kind of odd behaviour occurs when I try to copy/paste or duplicate the rectangle+text, or to group all the objects (I assume that it is stored as separate objects, and it is those objects that get split up). I am using Inkscape 0.48 on Windows 7. And I am using it because Powerpoint 2010 doesn't allow me to sensibly work with a large tabloid/ledger size page (or rather, it does, but all text and spacing/margins scale up commensurately, making it exactly the same as working with a normal size slide). Anything I can do to address the odd Inkscape behaviour and allow me to make a flowchart/schematic. It's really a straightforward thing to do in concept, and I never realized how challenging it can be to actually do it.

Here is an illustration of the problem. In frame 1, I am preparing to flow text into the inner box as described in the above link. Frame 2 shows the flowed text. Frame 3 shows selection of the text and both inner and outer boxes, which allows the combination to be dragged around. Frame 4 shows what happens when I press Ctrl-D to duplicate the ensemble. The text is off kilter. Frame 5 shows what happens when I try to drag the duplicated ensemble toward the South East. The text for the replicated ensemble is still off kilter (though I seem to recall in the past that it wasn't so well behaved). Finally, Figure 6 shows what happens when I drag the original ensemble upward. The text in the replicated ensemble also move upward.


Afternote: Although it is highly non-ideal, it looks like I can avoid some of the problems by not having a margin between the flowed text and the containing shape. I have to drag the rectangle and not the text box in order to move the rectangle + text box. If I want to duplicate them, I need to select both. However, the text in the duplicate misbehaves if I grab the original rectangle and move it. The duplicate text moves commensurately, and it stops moving in response to movement of the replicated rectangle. I have to convert the duplicate text to text (unflowed), then re-flow it into the replica text box. Probably easier to forgo replicating the flowed text, to only replicate the rectangle, then create a new text object with the same content as the original text, then flow that new text object into the replica rectangle.

After afternote: OK, here's the best solution I've found thus far, though still far from ideal. Create box + text as per this page. There will be 3 boxes: The outer visible box, the smaller inset box to create margin with the outer visible box, and the text itself. Select only the outer box, copy it, hit Ctl-Alt-J and create an inner box for margin. The Press F1 to get the standard selector pointer, double-click in the original text box so that you see a text insertion point, press Ctl-A to select all text, click in the open and press Ctrl-V to create new text with same words, press F1 to switch to standard selector pointer, incrementally select the inner box of the replicated outer rectangle, press Alt-W to reflow the new text into it, and presto, done. If you copy any of the inner box or the flowed text object (either with or without converting to Text->ConvertToText, you will get strange movement behaviour. Also, don't forget that you have to select all the parts to move the text flowed into the rectangle.

Gasping for breath.

I've also posted this to the inkscape forum.

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