Moving in steps or smoothly, changing the default settings By default when you are grabbing part of a mesh you can move it around smoothly or you can press the Ctrl key to move it in steps.

Somehow I pressed something I wasn't supposed to and now it moves in steps normally and I have to keep Ctrl pressed to move selections around smoothly, how can I return to the default settings?
Sounds like you have turned snapping on.

Holding the Ctrl key toggles on snapping temporarily. I presume you have accidentally turned snapping on, meaning the Ctrl key will now toggle snapping off.

You can turn it off my clicking the magnet icon in the 3D header toolbar:



(The image shows snapping is turned on)