I've had similar problems with Adobe Illustrator in the past (one of the reasons I came to Inkscape), but at all times when this problem has occurred, Adobe Photoshop shortcuts have been functioning fine.

For example, the shortcut for Undo, CTRL+Z does not work. Instead CTRL+Z opens up the magnify tool. Plenty of other shortcuts don't work either, and as you can imagine, shortcuts for any piece of software are valuable.

I have no idea why this could be. How can my undo shortcut, direct me to the magnify tool instead?

Now, I've done plenty of research into this and it would seem that perhaps some other application is stealing the keyboard shortcuts globally, hence Inkscape not being able to use that particular shortcut. I've also opened up the XML document and checked the shortcuts, they are listed as defaults. I HAVE NOT CHANGED ANYTHING. I only downloaded it yesterday.

Sometimes the undo shortcut will work once, then I try again and it directs me to the magnify icon/tool again. It's extremely hit and miss, at the moment though, the magnify tool is always CTRL+Z, not undo at all.

I've closed down certain programmes, had a look in 'msconfig' and disabled some programmes from there, yet still the same problem.

Any ideas?

Hi Sammo. Try this. Press z (no control) and see if you switch to the zoom tool (because the shortcut for this tool is z). If you do, then your control key stroke is not getting to inkscape. The only reason I can think of this happening (i'm not a codewriter) is that you are using an extended input device like a pen tablet or one of those high tech mouses (mice?) with five or six buttons, in which case the driver and control panel that you use to set what each key does is not compatible with InkScape. But this may be the wrong tree entirely if you have a standard mouse and keyboard.
Are you also by any chance using a custom hotkey utility? Quickeys Or a Macro something or the other?

Hi druban, thanks for your reply.

I wanted to reinstall Windows anyway, so just before I did, I uninstalled numerous programmes on my computer, some graphics related, some Adobe related (I knew they used shortcuts), but Inkscape still wouldn't let me use CTRL+Z for undo. Sometimes though, it would let me do...say...4 undo's, then it would stop and CTRL+Z would become the zoom tool again. Extremely odd!

After numerous attempts at trial and error, I reinstalled Windows, and installed Inkscape as the first piece of software on my 'new blank canvas,' - good advertisement I know, and it's running fine, all shortcuts are healthy. It's got me worried now to install anymore software, haha, because it's not the first time this has happened, but with Illustrator - oddly enough Photoshop's shortcuts have never faltered, in 6 years of me using that programme.

I'll continue to monitor Inkscape after each installation of software and narrow down the culprit as I progress. At the moment though, I need to get vector work done over September, and I'm not risking it. My pc is staying quite clutter free for the time being.

As for my hardware layout, I do have a Wacom tablet yes, but my mouse is a simply Logitech one, with left and right button, with middle scroll - no fancy stuff. My keyboard is simple too, obvious qwerty layout with no extra buttons that can be bound at the top, they are all F buttons with print screen, scroll lock and pause break. Your standard keyboard.

It still confuses me though, how this has happened, and only on vector based software it would seem, well Illustrator and Inkscape anyway - the only ones I've used.

If you do a search through Google though, along the lines of 'Illustrator shortcuts not working', you'll see it's a very common trend. Most people find pieces of software that 'steal' shortcuts, or stop them working.

Anyway, as I've said, after clean install, it's fine. But I'll continue to monitor the situation.

Thanks for your reply.

I've found the problem, for my anyway. It was Comodo Internet Security Premium.

After numerous fresh installs of my system, narrowing down what software is conflicting with Inkscape, I've just installed Comodo, my old security suite (not the best I know) and as soon as I loaded up Inkscape after that, CTRL+Z sent me to the zoom/magnify tool, instead of UNDO.

I've just this minute uninstalled Comodo Internet Security Premium and the CTRL+Z button works fine again. I just thought I'd post this here in case numerous people are having similar problems.

Now I'm not sure if this is the correct place to inform people, I'm not even sure if it's an official bug - it could be simply Comodo's fault, but I thought it was best to try and let people know.

Regards, Sammo.

Thanks for sharing.
It does seem strange to me that an internet security program would cause such a problem. If you want, you could search the Inkscape bug tracker at https://launchpad.net/inkscape (google search is better than Launchpad's). If you don't find anything similar, you might want to post a new bug, then others there can try to reproduce it, maybe confirm, or at least narrow it down some. (Although if you do post a new bug, don't hold your breath waiting for replies, lol.)(The developers work hard, but already have lists of priorities. If confirmed, yours will be added to it.)

I have the same problem with CTRL+Z.
Additionally I have problems with CTRL+A which launches the spray tool.
I also have the Comodo Firewall installed.

Could Sammo and Antony41 please report your operating system and Inkscape version? I'll file a bug report, but need that info. Thanks

fyi,
Inkscape Keyboard Layout v.047 - color coded
http://www.openclipart.org/detail/81331

I am using Windows Vista with Inkscape 0.48.
Thank you for reporting brynn!

Simplify (ctrl+L) is also a problem.

Odd... I have Comodo too and nothing is malfunctioning....

Win7 32bits, Inkscape 0.48.0 r9654, and Comodo 3.14 (only Firewall enabled).

I also have Comodo's Defense+ enabled.

I use Comodo 4.1

Today I got an update from Comodo.
It appeared to be an upgrade to Comodo 5.
My Ctrl problems are not present in combination with Comodo 5.
So a happy end.

Hi, sorry about late reply, I was using Windows XP Professional 32 bit.

shortcuts stops sometimes after typing text in Arabic (did not try any other scripts because I do not have any keyboards other than English and Arabic)..
most shortcut keys will stop, but other will remain functional such as shortcuts associated with the numeral keyboard on the side.

I am not sure what causes the issue, but it is really annoying, I tried few versions of Inkscape and the problem still exist.

Solution: 1. Save your work and restart Inkscape.

Or type any text using Latin letters , select it, and use any shortcut from the keyboard, apparently, this will reset something I do not know, but it will work.