I would like to propose for the list of actions to be moved further to the right, so that the icon would stay always visible. This visibility of the icon is not the goal itself; it is to done so that there would be no longer issues with accidentally executing some action, as it was described here /t/16883/1
This animated GIF illustrates what is happening and how it should / could look like
Until now I managed to avoid involuntary executing of actions by putting on top of my list of actions some actions groups instead of ordinary [single] actions; because groups after clicking them just show more actions on the right side, and do not execute any user defined tag changes
But having a Winamp docked at the top in the form of a thin bar, that sometimes needs to be expanded and thus taking more space, moves the action icon further down the screen. And so the icon it moved relatively to actions from the list. So I have to take into account how my list will look like in three different states: without Winamp, with Winamp thin, with Winamp thick. So every removal of action group from my list may simply result in coming back of the problem of accidental execution of action
It is such a drag, that can be ended with a small adjustment
I cannot reproduce it as on my PC any dropdown list appears below the arrow that opens the menu if there is enough space or above the arrow button if the space below the button is not sufficient.
In any case: as soon as the menu is open, it requires a distinct second click to select and execute the function. I see this behaviour right across other applications like MS Word, Firefox, iTunes.
So I think that the menu behaviour is governed by the OS. How do other applications behave?
Only this one menu list in Mp3tag has given me trouble and continuous to do so. But you are probably right- that is a normal behavior of Windows
But also, other menus are just not so long as this one can become. [A so do they do not have scroll icons. So if I open multiple instances of docked Winamp and thus use up over 50% of my vertical space, some menus are no longer displayed in their entirety- what is at the bottom simply cannot be shown because of lack of space]. If this Mp3tag action list is short enough, I also get it rolled out below the A-icon. But that is the core of the problem- if it is longer than the screen, then this normally working menu turns out to have "invalid" properties
So this [the involuntary clicking] could be dealt with by the means of my already suggested and visualized approach, by moving to the right, if it is not completely dependent on the operating system and can be controlled by Mp3tag. Or alternatively this can be solved by Mp3tag by forcing every time to roll out the menu below the icon [but also drawing scroll icons in it when necessary] and thus not utilizing the whole screen vertically [by overlapping Winamp at the top if it is docked and taking some space]
And if this is so and the menu representation is governed by Windows then it is a problem of Windows - and cannot be remedied by MP3tag as Mp3tag only calls the Windows functions.
If MP3tag should become the GUI shell, then MP3tag would have to take care of all these Windows functions. Which it does not.
I still suspect that the WInamp docks are the culprits: they do not report back their true dimensions so Windows is not able to draw the menus properly.
So I still do not think that this is an MP3tag bug.
Here is a quick and loose composition of menus and drop down list from various pieces of software, as there are displayed on my computer
So as we can see, apparently it is not depended on the operating system; at least not every pixel is
Please mind the indicator lines showing how much space is left for icons inside menus: some have more while some have less [than Mp3tag which is shown at the top]. So this tells us there is even an third solution: if Mp3tag would make even more space between left edge of that drop down menu and the first letters of actions listed in it, the problem [of involuntary selecting an action] would go away- because I would be [involuntary] clicking empty space
And check out the bottom example: is has what I proposed at the very beginning- menu shown on the right side of the icon that evokes them [although that is software in its version from the year 2000]
The dropdown lists in MP3tag look exactly the same as in other applications, I would say.
There is a column-like space for icons only that there are no icons in MP3tag.
As these menus look the same - the icons would execute the function just as the text representation would do - I wonder if you observe the same behaviour in other applications or other menues in MP3tag or just the (very long) Actions dropdown list that you have created.
If the other menus in MP3tag show the correct behaviour, then I am sure that it is still an OS problem and therefore applies to all applications.
The look very similar, in terms how much space there is for icons, although the are exceptions. It could be they look different, but behave in the same way; with the same issue. Meaning that they seem to have more pixels of empty space but that empty space when clicked reacts as if a name / descirpton from the list was clicked]
So I stacked up at the top the screen multiple instances of docked Winamp, thus taking most of the horizontal space. So that even a short menu would be too long to fit. I got lucky with my 3 first choices for the test:
1] FreeCommander behaved like Mp3tag. So the same problem of accidental clicking occurred, for which I seek a remedy
2] Notepad2 instead of rolling the list down, started to show them [in their entirety] above, obscuring all those Winamps. Neat trick
3] CorelDRAW when it does not have enough vertical space, starts to draw menus on the right side of the icon or menu item, thus not replicating behavior of Mp3tag / FreeCommander and modifying its own. [And may I add I was surprise, because with CorelDRAW is usually the other way around: the do not think "what if", but just implement something ans then ignore users complaints about bugs]
So what CorelDRAW does [but only when there is not enough space], is what I wish Mp3tag would do [all the time]
