Brynn,

When I follow your instructions - rectangle, mesh, back to rect tool -
the mesh nodes are not visible when I switch to Rect tool. As I recall, there
is a way to keep the gradient nodes visible and editable with the Node tool and
a few other tools. But I don't have those options enabled. So that would be a
way to access the shape handles, without turning off the mesh nodes..

You're right - there's a checkbox in the preferences of the Node tool to turn on/off gradient editing. I don't know if it's enabled by default, but I don't recall ever changing that setting. The fact that I didn't know about it until you mentioned it suggests that I probably haven't.

I wonder if there needs to be two or three checkboxes though. I don't mind having the handles for linear and radial gradients visible in Node mode, as they're rarely positioned over the normal editing handles in the drawings I create. Mesh handles, on the other hand, always end up getting in the way. I would prefer to be able to leave the handles enabled for linear and radial, but have them disabled for meshes. Time to file a feature request...

Mark