Hi, im illustrator user recently switched to inkscape. Im using spacebar to pan around, but some times it is very annoying when some large and complex object is selected and you press space bar and it starts to trail that object..
Is there a way to disable that spacebar-copy feature?
Thanks in advance!

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

What version of Inkscape are you using? It also might be helpful to know your operating system. I recall using the Spacebar to pan the Inkscape canvas in the past, but it doesn't seem to work anymore. I'm currently using 0.48.1. I looked up Help menu > Tutorials > Basic, which is where I remember reading how to pan the canvas. But the Spacebar is not mentioned. So my conclusion is that panning works differently for different versions. Now it seems that 'Space + click', or 'Space + click/drag', zooms the canvas by 1 step (for each click). I'm glad I learned this, because it will be a convenient shorcut! But that doesn't help you

What I recall, is that you had to grab the canvas in an empty area of the canvas, while holding Spacebar, then drag. But perhap you don't need empty area, I can't remember for sure. I'm not sure what you mean about something trailing the object.

I went to check Help menu > Keys and Mouse Ref (on the chance that there might be a reverse reference where I could look and see what kind of shortcuts involve the Space bar). No such thing. But I do find the following, here

"Space switches to the Selector tool temporarily; another Space switches back.
When the "Left mouse button pans when Space is pressed" option is on in Preferences, Space+mouse drag pans canvas instead of switching to Selector."

It's a little confusing for me though, because I DO have "Left mouse button pans when Space is pressed" checked in Inks Prefs. But I cannot engage the Selection tool using Space (or disengage), and neither can I pan the canvas with Space + drag. In fact, when I press Space, I can't drag the mouse pointer at all. What I'm thinking is that the Key/Mouse Ref is written for the current version of Inksape, and mine isn't the current version.

If none of that explains or solves your problem, would you please clarify what you mean about something trailing something?

Thanks for Your replay. Im using Ubuntu Linux 12.10 32bit version and Inkscape 0.48.3.1.
Actually when i was looking for space bar paning posibility in inkscape i found this resource: http://inkscape.org/doc/keys046.html where it says:

mouse dragSpace drop a copy
When dragging nodes with mouse, each Space leaves a copy of the selected object.
You can press and hold Space while dragging for a nice "trail."

How it looks like:


About emty areas- yes its true if i space-drag an emty area everything is fine, but on the other side when complex drawing is zoomed there are hard to find any empty space...

Are you using a mouse without a middle mouse button? because if you are, it seems that the whole issue is moot - just drag with the middle mouse button to pan the canvas. I believe this is hardcoded, so it's not changeable or dependent on preferences.
I understand that Illustrator users may not have had middle-mouse drag, and this in itself harks back to the time when Adobe was developing software for Apple first and then porting it to PC, but really, if there's a convenient improvement available why let old habit stand in your way?

Thanks for the tip. In this case seems ill need to change my mouse, pressing scroller seems very unconvenient, might be some other mouses have better "middle button". But might be ill be able to get used to it. Old habits die hard

For others, I think you're referring to this http://inkscape.org/doc/keys048.html#d0e3233. And you're saying that when you try to pan the canvas, and you don't grab an empty area of canvas, your experience is that node dragging feature. I'm not familiar with that feature, and neither can I actually make it work. I can't even make panning work anymore.

If druban's comments didn't get you to a resolution, then someone else will need to answer this. Yes, 3rd mouse button. I have one, but it can't be used to pan.

Anyway, let us know if you still need help

brynn wrote:3rd mouse button. I have one, but it can't be used to pan.

Now i'm really curious why this should be! This feature should be hardcoded in; when you say 'third mouse button', that's not necessarily the same as 'middle mouse button'. Some mice have up to six buttons and require additional software to use them.
FYI I assign middle mouse button to a button on my tablet pen and use that to pan with and it works fine.
If you have other mouse control panels you may have assigned some other click to your middlemousebutton. If you're interested you could look in your control panels. I think not being able to pan with just one hand could be a huge handicap!