Comment 2 for bug 1209342

On 08/17/2013 11:06 PM, Launchpad Bug Tracker wrote:
> Place some text on the canvas and enable grid + snap to text anchor. If
> text is rotated while Shift is holding down, the text won't rotate free,
> but tries to snap at certain angles.

That's because the shift-key is already reserved for selecting whether
the rotation occurs around the center of the bounding box around the
opposite corner (opposite of the rotation handle that is being dragged).

In many other places in the Inkscape UI the shift key is already taken,
and cannot be used for temporarily disabling the snapping. I'd like to
see that changed, but I'm still waiting for someone to step up and make
a proposal for an inkscape-wide consistent usage of modifier keys (ctrl,
shift, alt, etc).

If there are not enough keys and we really need all these options, then
we could make a distinction between pressing shift _before_ grabbing the
handle, and pressing shift _after_ grabbing the handle. The former could
be used for setting the center of rotation, and the latter then for
preventing snapping.

> Workaround for this is to temporarly disable grid.

Other work-around: use %-key to disable snapping globally

> Not a seriius bug, but still anoying.

I totally agree with you!