What is the “close menu issue”?

What I call the “close menu issue” is an intermittent issue (probably caused by Windows) preventing users from closing the QAP popup menu by clicking outside of the menu or by hitting the Escape key as they would do normally. As a result, users have to click an item to close the menu. This is annoying when a user opens the menu but changes its mind and does not want to launch any favorite.

This issue occurs intermittently under Windows 7 and Windows 10 (probably also with 8/8.1 or Windows 11). Some user are facing it frequently. Other, like me, see it only occasionally. There are probably others that never see it.

I tried various methods to get around this issue but, in the end, the changes I made in my code had side-effects worse than the initial issue. For this reason, I added the option Add “Close” to menus (in the Options window, Menu Appearance tab). If this option is turned on (checked), the Close this menu entry is automatically added to the main QAP popup menu, to the Alternative menu, to all dynamic menus and to menu that can be open by a shortcut or a hotstring. This option is turned on by default.

What if you never encounter this issue?

If you are always able to close the QAP popup menu by clicking outside of the menu or by hitting the Escape key, you can save the space taken by the Close this menu entries. In the Options, deselect the Add “Close” to menu check box.