How to stop IPE from changing text from normal to math and removing $?

Hello;

IPE 7.2.6 on windows.

I googled this, but do not see something now, and thought to ask.

When I first click on Text Lable (L), the window that
comes up, says this

----------------------------------------
Edit Latex source   NORMAL    NORMAL
----------------------------------------

I then type this in the small window

$x$

and click OK. And save. When I later right-click on the text
and say edit text, I see that IPE removed the $ signs! and
now it says

----------------------------------------
Edit Latex source   MATH    NORMAL
----------------------------------------
x

But I do not want this. I want to keep the $$ signs as I typed
them. The reason is, may be I want to later add some
plain text next to the math I had there. Now with
the $$ removed, it gets confusing.

Could one tell IPE to please keep things as I typed them

--------------------------------------------
Edit Latex source   NORMAL    NORMAL
$x$
---------------------------------------------

And not change it to
--------------------------------------------
Edit Latex source   MATH    NORMAL
x
---------------------------------------------

Is this new feature in 7.2.6 or was it always like this?

Thank you
--Nasser