Now there are two ways to proceed. In the first way, pick the gradient tool from the Synfig Toolbox, and click into the canvas once. You should note that another layer was added in the Layers Dialog called 'Gradient'. This is nothing special. If you see no gradient but just a plain color, pick the normal tool, click into the canvas to acivate the gradient's ducks. You need to grab the one you see and move it a bit until a gradient appears. You now have a gradient but it is not what you wanted: It spreads the whole canvas and the goal was to have a gradient on the rectangle. Let's fix this now. Select the gradient and the rectangle layer in the Layers Dialog. They should appear with a blue background now. Then, context-click (ie. right-click on Windows and Linux) and select 'Encapsulate' from the menu. The view of your layer tab should change now, showing a small box called 'Inline Canvas' with an arrow in front. If you click the arrow, it will unfold and show your previous two layers; the gradient and the rectangle. You can treat this layer like any other layer -- move it around, duplicate it, copy and paste it. You'll notice an arrow next to the icon of the box. By clicking on this arrow, you can expand the inline canvas to see its contents. If you want to change the name of it to something more descriptive, just select the layer in the layer tab and click on its label. Then you just edit it in place. You can do this for ANY layer, and are strongly encouraged to do so.