So I was following the chrome text tutorial and got stuck at making a linked offset for the text. When I select the object, and go to Paths>Linked Objects, instead of making a Linked Offset it just switches to the tool. I tried other offsets(just to see if it's only linked offsets that aren't working) and they don't work either. They work for spirals, rectangles, etc. Help, please.

Just a guess - did you convert the text to a path before trying to offset??

You do not need to convert it to paths, and in fact this breaks one of the key points of the tutorial.

Inkscape does a strange thing in that it creates the linked offset _under_ the original.

To illustrate this -

Create a simple shape.
Select it.
From the menu select "Path" then "Linked Offset"
Immediately change the colour of the shape to clearly display how the behavior is slightly unexpected.

What will happen is the icon will change as you have already noted. Grab the singular node square that appears and drag it outward. That is your linked offset. Any changes in the original object will be reflected in the linked offset.

Hope this helps, and thanks for reading.

druban wrote:Just a guess - did you convert the text to a path before trying to offset??

I tried that, but since it was monotonous, boring, and not to mention a waste of time, so since it wasn't mentioned in the tutorial I didn't follow through with it.

troy_s wrote:Inkscape does a strange thing in that it creates the linked offset _under_ the original.

I already found that out when, like I said, I tried it with other shapes.

troy_s wrote:Create a simple shape.
Select it.
From the menu select "Path" then "Linked Offset"
Immediately change the colour of the shape to clearly display how the behavior is slightly unexpected.

This is what I tried with rectangles, and it worked. The thing is, the same thing doesn't seem to work with text - instead of the diamond node I should be getting to change the offset, I just get the normal nodes I get by just clicking the text with the tool.

Here's a screencast showing it.

you might try to find the linked offset by tabbing through your objects. Watch the info line to see when it says something like "one linked offset object". This could be pretty boring too. bbbut if you select the object that you are making the offset from the next object that you tab to should be the linked offset so its just one click. maybe you have already tried this.

I'm starting to think this is a bug.

After going to Path>Linked Offset and clicking on it, I went to the edit drop down list and Linked Offset isn't even there.

Linked offsets will not work with flowed text (which is what you get when dragging a box then typing text).

Either select the text and go Text->Unflow or create the text in the first place by a single click with the text tool, not a click-drag.

-Rob A>