Inkscape: How to exclude multiple object from selection

Question

I can't realize how to exclude multiple object from selection (using selection rectangle).

Example: I have a table where are borders (long lines - paths) and some text (every character is single path object). I want to make group from long lines (borders).

So, I select whole table and want to deselect text objects. I can hold shift and click on every object to exclude from selection (~1000 clicks? - please no!).

Thanks for your advice.

PS: Now, I'm using a workaround - select the text objects and group them, then select whole table and exclude few text groups by single clicks.

Answer 1

Depending on how your document is constructed, there are three Inkscape features that might help you here.

1. Layers are your friend -- Add the items that you want to not be selected into a new layer, and use the Lock feature on that layer to stop them being selected. For more info on layers, see: http://en.flossmanuals.net/inkscape/ch036_layers/

2. The second is a little known feature of the Select Tool, called Touch Selection. Holding down Alt and clicking and dragging with the select tool draws a temporary red line on your canvas -- anything that intersects with the red line is selected. For more info on all the features of the select tool, see: http://en.flossmanuals.net/inkscape/ch006_select-tool/

3. Finally, a new Feature in Inkscape 0.91 is Select Same. This allows you to select objects that are the same object type, or have the same fill, or stroke values. This will allow you to select all the paths/lines in your document, but not select the text. For more info see: https://inkscapetutorials.org/2013/09/05/inkscape-0-49-feature-selecting-objects-by-style/

Answer 2

Three relative ideas :

1. Another possibility is to lock / move to a locked layer the objects you want to exclude.
2. In some cases, the find/replace panel is of some help to select precise objects.
3. Notice that selections can somehow be saved using css and selector panel.

Answer 3

The strict answer to your question "how to exclude multiple object from selection, using selection rectangle?" is you can't. This is a, sadly, a missing feature of Inkscape (like undoing/redoing selection changes!).