Everything hidden outside of work space

[Tank]

I had the usual problems of the fill and stroke when trying to draw a polygon (sorted) BUT while working outside of the box its as if there is a mask across the whole page and everything is invisible until I move it into the workspace ! and I cannot get rid of it.

[Moini]

If you share the file, we might be able to find the offending object for you.

Else, you may want to search for 'clipped' or 'masked' objects, locked layers etc. in the drawing yourself.

Use the layers dialog (Layers > Layers...) , the objects dialog (Objects > Objects...), the selection tool (first tool, F1 or S) and the status line at the bottom (Inkscape tells you what kind of object you have selected).

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

What is "the usual problem of fill and stroke"?

We'll know more when we can see the SVG file.  But I'm guessing the "box" you're talking about is the page border.  As Moini hinted, you may be right, and there may well be a mask (or clip) in the file.  The new Objects dialog will be helpful in finding it.  (Object menu > Objects) 

What is the history of the file?  Often we find objects or pages which are clipped, when the file has been converted from some other vector format.  If that's the case, there could be many clipped or masked objects.  If so, you could handle them all at once by select all, then release either clip or mask, whatever it is.

[Tank]

Thank you both, I wont take up any more time with this, but for clarity it was an imported EPS file of a map that I was using, so it did have a clip mask and I scrapped it and started again, so I got there in the end. Thanks very much. I do have another peculiar issue but will post as a new question, thanks again.