Looks good to me - and again, the scarcity of controls on the Text tool is not because we want it to be so, but simply because no one got a round tuit so far.
Oh don't worry, I'm not blaming anyone. But I Would like to see a status update on the LPE proposal (even if low-priority), to show that the UI proposal at least is more or less finished? :P
http://scislac.com/inkscape/texty.png (I'm sure glad gtk isn't still that ugly)
The letter spacing! How could I have forgotten those! I'd be glad to try to incorporate Josh's proposals into it all as well. :) The text bar is getting crowded though, some of these aspects may have to go into a drop-down. I'll try to come up with something.
Say... what's the extra drop-down to the left for?
Valerie, if you would like to add letter/line spacing, kerning, and rotation fields to your mockup (not necessarilly the same as in my old toolbar, if you have better thoughts/ideas I won't be offended at all) it would be an excellent step forward.
Alright, I'll give it a shot! It will take me some time, so in the meantime, good luck with your work!