I have been using Inkscape for many months. One common activity is to extend straight lines or the shapes of polygons by dragging a node (diamond).
For some reason, I guess I accidentally hit the wrong key sequence, the program is not behaving. When I drag a node it will not stay where I want it to be. It just "snaps" back or to some other nearby location. I do not use a grid or snap to grid. One specific example: I create a rectangle, make it a path, use the node tool to move the top right node further right - what happens? the node "snaps" to the mid-point of a diagonal and I no longer have a rectangle - it is now a triangle. Very annoying!
Zooming does not alter the behaviour. Anyone who can help? Thank you.

Oaec99 wrote:I have been using Inkscape for many months. One common activity is to extend straight lines or the shapes of polygons by dragging a node (diamond).
For some reason, I guess I accidentally hit the wrong key sequence, the program is not behaving. When I drag a node it will not stay where I want it to be. It just "snaps" back or to some other nearby location. I do not use a grid or snap to grid. One specific example: I create a rectangle, make it a path, use the node tool to move the top right node further right - what happens? the node "snaps" to the mid-point of a diagonal and I no longer have a rectangle - it is now a triangle. Very annoying!
Zooming does not alter the behaviour. Anyone who can help? Thank you.

By the story you told here, I cannot see the nature of the problem. It's just too little information.
What settings do you use for snapping?
Where DO you want the node to stay?
How far away from the snap point are the node where this occurs? Do this make sense when you look at the snap settings in the page settings dialog box?
Do you hold any buttons on the keyboard down while you're moving the node?

How do you get a triangle by moving the top right point to the right ?

1. Your 'snap distance' may be set too high in your prefs.
2. You may accidentally have hit the "%" key thereby turning on snapping. Now your snap toolbar will determine which items you snap to.
3. Your document setup allows you to snap to the grid whether it is visible or not, as an option, as long as snapping is turned on.

If these do not provide you with relief, come back and report!

Try to answer the questions:
Don't know how I get a triangle - I move the top right node and as soon as I release it it shoots to a point on the rectangle's diagonal and I have a triangle and there are now only 3 nodes.
I never interfere with the prefs. snap distance as I do not want snapping. I looked it up and I have "enable snap indicator" ticked, delay 150, weight factor 0.5. Unfortunately there is no snap on/off switch!
"%" key. That's unlikely. I get the same performance on different machines and different documents. I just wish there was some way of sending a file and having someone try to move a node and get it to stay there or a send a screen shot!
Re "document setup" - I always have the "Always snap" boxes un-checked. "Snap only when closer than" doesnt have the option of a large value the range allowable makes no difference.
Finally, for Grobe, I want the node to stay where I move it to! e.g. if I want to stretch a figure I want to move the rightmost nodes about the same distance. "How far away" - node become uncontrollable even with minimum re-positioning (dances around) - finally, when I'm moving a node I do it with the mouse and do not touch any keys. Does not happen with all documents. As I said, I have been using it for some time.

Please tell us the version of Inkscape you are using. the current version is 0.48.4. Upgrade to this to get all the features that people might be suggesting that you use. Do you understand about the snap toolbar? Snapping is turned on/off at the very top. Also from the menu. Also with the % key.

Oaec99 wrote:I never interfere with the prefs. snap distance as I do not want snapping

Still, this distance is set, by default, even if you don't want snapping, so if you turn on snapping it will have an influence.
Sending an svg file will not really be useful, since the user prefs of anyone opening your file will determine snapping behavior. You might send your prefs file, but only if you know how to find it. Sending the default Inkscape prefs (from the inkscape program folder) instead of your user prefs (from your username appdata folder) will only confuse the issue even more, so if you send a prefs file please tell us the path to the folder you found it in.
If you send a screenshot be sure to include the right side of the screen if that's where your snap toolbar is located.

The snap toolbar state is stored in the svg, together with the document properties, so uploading an svg will explain a lot already. Some more general snap settings which are not document related but more user preference related are however indeed stored in the preferences. But, please tell us what version of Inkscape you have, and please share some screenshots if possible.

In the mean time, just disable snapping by pressing the % key, or by toggling the top-most button on the snap toolbar (assuming that you're not using a really old Inkscape version)

Thanks guys. T'was the version (old). Really grateful for your time and effort.