When I open a PDF in 0.47, there is a drop menu in the dialog box for importing text as text. It has a little arrow for a drop down menu, but there are no other options. I need to import the text as paths to avoid changing the fonts. Is there any way to accomplish this?

I may not have your answer. But I just did a few test documents, and here's what happened.

First, I created a new Inkscape doc with a string of text on which I performed Object to path. Then I created another string, and left it as Text. Then I did File menu > Save As, chose .pdf from the dropdown, and affixed .pdf to the filename. Then closed it.

Next, I opened Inkscape again, and Opened the PDF in Inkscape. In the PDF Import Settings dialog, I left everything on the default, except I unchecked "Replace PDF fonts with closest named fonts".

When it opened, the text that I had converted to paths was still paths. And the text that I left as text, was still text. BUT, it's not the same font that I had saved.

Since I had unchecked the box to replace font with closest named font, I would have expected to retain the same font. So maybe that part either is buggy, or just doesn't work yet.

But I think you're concerned about the text path remaining paths, and either way, I still got paths. So based on my results, I think you should be able to just click ok, and still have your text paths in place.

Let us know what happens

No, Brynn, the text in the PDF is text. So I need to import text as paths.

Oh I'm sorry. I thought you meant the text was already paths and you wanted it to stay that way.

But yeah, there's no option to convert the text to paths as you open it.