Certain images are better suited for one technique or the other, but it is beyond the scope of this tutorial to explain further, or to give instructions for either of these tools. Or you could auto-trace it using Path menu > Trace Bitmap. You can either use Inkscape's Pen tool, and 'manually' trace the image, to create vector paths. However, it is possible to convert a raster image to vector. If that is indeed what you find, there will be no way to select any individual part of the image, not with Inkscape. If it starts with ' Image.' that means it's a raster image. To find out, first open the image in Inkscape. Just because the file format is vector does not mean the image itself is vector.

First make sure that it's a vector image.

And for this tutorial, it's the middle part of that bar, where textual information is given, that you need to pay attention to.

The status bar is the bar along the bottom of the window. The key to figuring out what to do (and as well, the key to becoming proficient with Inkscape) is to use the status bar. If you have a file which you did not create yourself, and you're trying to select an individual object, but you can only select the whole image there are a few reasons why it might be happening, and few ways to address the problem.

Inkscape for dummies