Can't select locked objects/layers even with "Ignore locked objects and layers" unchecked

[Nick Cappello]

Locked objects (and objects within locked layers) can't be selected. In preferences (ctrl + shift +p) there is an option within the "Selecting" tab to "Ignore locked objects and layers" but it does not make a difference. The only way to unlock the object is to go into the XML code, find the locked object and delete the "sodipodi:insensitive" attribute.

Inkscape 0.48.4 r9939
Windows 7 SP1 64-bit

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> The only way to unlock the object is to go into the XML code,

Locked objects can be unlocked via 'Object > Unlock all' (this will unlock all locked objects in the current layer.
<http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Select.html#id1141138>

[su_v (suv-lp)]

With regard to the preference setting, please read the title of that section carefully:
<quote>
Ctrl+A, Tab, Shift+Tab
</quote>

The setting works as described, but only for the mentioned selecting methods (i.e. not for selecting by mouse).

Proposing to close - not a bug.

[Nick Cappello (nccappello)]

OK I didn't realize what the heading in the preferences was referring to, maybe there should be a wishlist item to include a "mouse interaction" heading with a similar option? Do you want me to mark the status as "invalid?"

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> maybe there should be a wishlist item to include a
> "mouse interaction" heading with a similar option?

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the 'lock' (and 'hide') feature (which e.g. allows to drag a selection frame around a complex stack of drawing objects and be sure that locked objects will not accidentally get selected and edited as well)? IMHO the current limitation to selection methods which limit the scope either to content of the current drawing level (layer or group) (Ctrl+A), or to selecting one item at the time (Tab) does make sense.

A better suited interface to toggle the status of locked/hidden objects is probably an 'Object / Group' browser - a well known feature request filed in various variants, among them e.g.

- Bug #181578 “hide/show/lock objects from XML tree view”
- Bug #171995 (sf1735666) “Layer and Object Manager”

[Nick Cappello (nccappello)]

I can definitely see why not selecting the locked object with the mouse is important if objects are stacked. I was trying to keep a locked "reference" object for which I could align other objects/text to, and to do so, both objects must be selected. I suppose one would just need to be careful not to move the reference object, but an 'Object / Group' browser would be nice!

[su_v (suv-lp)]

On 2013-10-15 24:24 +0200, Nick Cappello wrote:
> I was trying to keep a locked "reference" object for which I could
> align other objects/text to, and to do so, both objects must be
> selected.

For such a use case, it might be helpful inkscape would offer the feature to 'lock' certain properties of an object (instead of making it insensitive to selection and thus for editing): for example to pin it to a position (lock x,y) or to set a fixed size (lock width, height), while the object can still be selected with regular methods (e.g. to change color).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

The 'Align and Distribute' dialog allows to use objects as 'anchors', e.g. with
- Relative to: 'First Selected'
- Align left sides to right side of anchor.
This will keep the first selected object in its original position ("fixed") and align the rest of the selection with their left sides to the right side of the anchor object.

[Nick Cappello (nccappello)]

Thank you for pointing this out, this is a great feature to have a choice over!