Ok, I am new to Inkscape. I want to know, can you lock an object when drawing?

For example, I made an eclipse, and I duplicated it. On the second eclipse, I changed the background to gradient, and I saw that the first eclipse's background as well has been changed. I want to know if you can lock an object, because I don't want the first eclipse's background to change.

Thank!

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

Hhm...if the color of the first object changed when you changed the color of the 2nd object, it sounds like you may have cloned it, rather than duplicate it. The duplicate and clone buttons are right beside each other (on the command bar). What do you see in the status bar when you select the objects? They both should say "Path (# of nodes) in layer Layer 1". If you accidentally cloned, only one of them will say that, and the other will say "Clone of: Path (# of nodes) in layer Layer 1".

If neither one of them is identified as a clone in the status bar, maybe you had both objects selected when you changed the color. That would have changed both of them. Or if you had them grouped, same as selecting both. The status bar will say "Group of..." if you had them grouped.

If they are not grouped, you can use Alt + 2clicks (with mouse positioned above the lower object) to select the object on the bottom. Each additional click will select the next object down in z-order. When you get to the bottom, if you click again, the top object will be selected. You can watch the status bar, and the style indicators in bottom left corner of window to help identify which object is selected. Sometimes I actually switch to the Node tool to be sure which object is selected (because you can see the nodes) although if the objects are duplicates, that won't really help.

If they are grouped, you can either ungroup, or use Ctrl + click to select the top one. Or Ctrl + Alt + 2clicks to select the bottom one.

An object can be locked, but there are very few situations where I would suggest it. There's nothing wrong with doing it, it's just people tend to forget that they locked it. If you really want to, you'll still have to select it, and it alone, then Object menu > Object Properties > Lock

If none of that helps, please tell us what the status bar says when you select them.

Ok I solved it thank you.

By the way, when you add stroke color on an object, why you cannot choose the color by clicking on the palette below instead of the palette in the Fill and Stroke window? Because when I chose a color in the palette below for a stroke, it fills entirely the object!

Clicking a color in the palette gives the selected object a fill. To give the selected object a stroke, or change a stroke color, hold Shift while clicking a color in the palette.

Please see my forum signature for some instructions materials

Thank you. I solved it. I just right-click on the palette, and it gives me option to select between fill and stroke How to marked this thread as "Solved"?

No need to mark as solved. We don't do this like some forums do.

I've used Inkscape for a couple yrs now and it was only reading a thread a couple weeks ago that I learned to hold down the shift key before clicking on the palette to color the stroke!

Re: gradient, when you want to use a similar gradient for more than one object, and you want to move the slider bar on the gradient independently of the rest, just be sure to click on 'duplicate', located on the fill N stroke menu, as soon as you choose the gradient. In effect, that duplicates the gradient and does not link you into the original, so you can add, remove and change colors all you want, and leave the original alone.