sometimes when i have a tool selected, say TEXT tool, and try to go to selection tool, it won't change to SELECT tool. i have to hit F1 to change to select. it happens a lot going from any tool to another tool. any ideas? thanks.

Howdy,
Regarding this and your other post, it might help to put your system and version info in your signature file.

it won't let me have a signature.
i have i7 processor with inkscape version 0.48

i have since tried a corded mouse and have same problem. i have closed and reopened inkscape with same result.
thanks

Is your operating system Windows, Mac, or in the Linux family?

F1 and S are the key shortcuts for calling the Selection tool. So I guess you mean you can't engage the Selection tool by clicking the icon/button with the mouse. Correct? Are you using a graphics tablet or pen?

Can you tell us exactly what happens? Does the button appear to be engaged when you click on it? It should look like it's sunken below the surface, when it's engaged, kind of grayed out. Or does nothing happen at all? Do you see the mouse pointer, which is a white arrow, when it's over blank canvas, or white arrow and hand when it's over an object? Or does everything look like it should be working, but it's not?

windows 7 using a mouse and i see the pointer. the button doesn't engage or change. i can select with function keys but it won't always select with pointer over buttons. sometimes if i hit escape key then it will let me select button with pointer.

This is a problem I've never heard before. I have no idea what to say. I have heard that if someone is using a graphics tablet (which sort of bypasses the mouse) but they leave the mouse sitting on the tablet, somehow it can cause unwanted things to happen.

i can select with function keys but it won't always select with pointer over buttons.

So you mean if the mouse is over the icon, you can't engage the Selection tool with f1? How very strange!!

You said you've even switched mouses, so it can't be the mouse. Do you have any other input devices installed, such as speech recognition, or other accessibility options in use?

Well, all I could suggest is to upgrade to the current stable version 0.48.5, and hope for the best. If nothing else, it would provide another troubleshooting clue, diagnostically....at least to my very non-technical mind.

Maybe some of our other more technically oriented members will have some ideas?

after upgrading, everything is screwed up. i can't even make a rectangle and put color in it.

UPDATE - after deleting preferences file, i can now draw and color like normal again, but tool selection doesn't always work with courser over button. i have clicked up to 6 times and then it will finally select. could it be something to do with screen resolution? i can always select with function keys on first try.

I wouldn't think the screen resolution would be involved. But I'm certainly no expert on that. Do you use an unusual resolution?

A resolution that makes everything look bigger, would mean possibly fewer buttons in the toolbar are displayed. At the bottom of the toolbar, there will be a button, or some kind of icon to click, to reveal the rest of the toolbar which doesn't fit at this resolution. (I forget whether that's a called higher or lower resolution....lower numbers mean higher resolution, which makes things bigger....right? Or do I have it backwards?)

If it was a very high resolution, I suppose it might be possible that the functionality of the control bar somehow overlaps the top of the toolbar, even though the icons don't overlap. I've seen that happen on a webpage, in a browser (I've used a high res in the past (or low, I'm not sure what to call it -- I needed everything bigger, to help with vision issues). But Inkscape is different from a browser or webpage. Plus, I understood you to say the problem affects all the tools, from time to time, not just Selection tool.

So if the same problem is occurring in a different version, that probably indicates something on your end. Which is not to say we can't help. Personally, I'm scratching my head, but hopefully someone else will have an idea.

If you were working on a very large image (say over 2 mb) on a computer with 2 GB RAM or less, Inkscape can start to run so slow on some computers (especially with zoom), that you can't switch tools (or click anything) until Inkscape catches up. But this would affect every click, not just clicking on tool icon/buttons. If you create a temporary object, or even in a test file, so you don't mess up previous work -- when you get to the place where you can't switch to the Selection tool, try to click something in the Fill and Stroke dialog -- like change the color, or add or remove a fill or stroke. Just to test if this has anything to do with Inkscape performance.

Beyond that, I'm stumped