Comment 2 for bug 1497280

Text imported from a page of a PDF file as text is "absolutely kerned" (the position of glyphs is defined in coordinates relative the page) - Inkscape cannot edit such text without removing all absolute x-coordinates of the characters first (via menu 'Text > Remove manual kerns'), otherwise inserted or replaced text will render with the same x position (i.e. on top of each other).

Recommended reading: "Text editing tips" in
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.46#PDF_and_AI_import
(the same information still applies to text imported as text in Inkscape 0.91)

The underlying issue is tracked in this earlier report:
* Bug #188794 “Broken editing of text with absolute kerning”
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/188794

Proposing to link as duplicate to bug #188794.