Long time Xara user, and with that my task is easy. It must be easy with Inkscape, but I'm just not getting it.

I have a photo/png to use as the basic background. I want to place a rectangle over the image and then subtract everything outside of the rectangle, leaving the background image as a stand along in the shape/size of that rectangle.

Every time I try the program tells me the image is not a path. This must be easy, but I'm old and mentally inform ...

This will create a new banner for www.RideAroundAmerica.com

Hi Lee,
use a clip: http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Clip.html

(this will not actually cut the raster image, but it will hide everything outside the clip from view)

Thank you! The documentation is using different terminology from what I am familiar with when using Xara. I am seeing some icons that intrigue me, and I am looking forward to learning about them. Thanks again for your help.