The Status bar
A much-overlooked area of the interface, this readout shows useful information about the current state of Inkscape (see Figure 1.20):
Figure 1.20 – The Status bar – an invaluable source of information
This area shows different things, depending on what’s selected:
- When no shapes are selected, the Status bar contains useful tips about the active tool.
- When an object is selected, the Status bar shows what the object type is and information about the object.
- When a path is selected, the Status bar shows how many nodes are in the current path.
- When a group is selected the Status bar shows how many objects and paths the group contains, and whether it contains other groups.
- When an image is selected, the Status bar shows the dimensions of the image in pixels, and whether the image is linked or embedded in the document.
- When something goes wrong – for example, you’ve tried to subtract one shape from another using path operations, and one of the objects isn’t a path. Inkscape will show an error message here reminding you that one of your shapes is an object and will not work for this operation until you convert it (more on this later).
Now, let’s take a look at the Docking area and dialogs.