I used to be able to select 2 objects then make the distance between them more or less as desired.

I think the 1st part of the shortcut contained SHIFT, CTRL, FN, ALT or a combination of those.

The 2nd part of the shortcut was < or >.

Thanks for your help!!!!

I don't know a shortcut to do this. Did you search there ? Some solutions (somebody will have smarter ideas, I guess)

You can set exactly distance between bounding boxes of objects using align and distribute panel, tab grid, choose one row, two columns if you set horizontal spacing. Tick set spacing and set the values. 

If you wanna deal without bounding boxes : 

•  use square as wide as the space you want to be, then do shift + G to convert square to guide
•  for each object, move rotation centers where you want your reference points to be
• use snapping to guides and rotation centers to move objects. 

Of course, with only two objects, only one needs to be moved, and that can be done with the arrow keys (with modifiers if desired).

I don't think this has changed much:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Transforms.html#Transforms-Keyboard

One small mistake you can make with arrow  shortcuts is not having the selector tool active. Some tools like rectangle and circle allow selecting existing objects with mouse and objects and layers panel allows selecting objects at any time. You need to have the selector tool active, it will not work in other tools.