How do I reverse a path or flip the direction text is flowing on a path?

You can reverse/flip the text direction by:

1. Select the path the text is on
2. From the menu Object->'Flip Horizontal' or Object->'Flip Vertical'

This should reverse/flip the text direction for text flowing on a path.

I tried that and it just mirrors the river and the text. For non symmetrical paths (not arcs or circles) it won't work. It changes it from a right hand to a left hand. If I select the text and do the same it will get it to the right direction but then it doesn't hug the river.

I tried to get cute by deconstruction reconsctruction. I selected the river with the edit node F2 tool. Then I drug a window around all the nodes in the river. Then I click on the break at node icon followed by ctrl-shft-k. That broke it up into separate segments. Then I started at the end and added back the segments one at a time using the join segments command. I thought that might change the direction of the path. The added text ended up in the same place. No joy.

> You can reverse/flip the text direction by:
>
> 1. Select the path the text is on
> 2. From the menu Object->'Flip Horizontal' or Object->'Flip Vertical'

3. Using menu 'Path > Reverse' to reverse the direction of the path

Important note: do only select the path itself, not the text, when reversing the path direction.

Example: <http://imgh.us/text-on-path-direction-1.svg>
See also: <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Text-Path.html#id3277065>

Minor correction: I did write

>> You can reverse/flip the text direction by:
>>
>> 1. Select the path the text is on
>> 2. From the menu Object->'Flip Horizontal' or Object->'Flip Vertical'
>
> 3. Using menu 'Path > Reverse' to reverse the direction of the path

but actually, it's not step 3 (i.e. following 1 and 2), it is an alternative to flipping a path which does not modify the position of the path itself (it only affects the path direction).