Actions menu: How do YOU use it?

yeah the filter is the thing, but many actions have strange names so you just have to get used to that... for example: you might be looking for a delete something action, but it might be called delete xxxx or it might be called remove xxxx that is just stuff you gotta get used to... no way around it that I can think of

I sometimes use the Action List to fire off actions that i hardly use, such as the cycle action editor. Knowing that can still run it (or any action), i dont have to have it in the menus for the very rare occasion that i might need it. A few times i have scrolled through the entire list, and everytime i do, i find some new, esoteric, action that i didnt know about before. ED (or was it Lawrence?) once mentioned in a thread that there are over 10,000 actions.

Here's a list of the actions. It would take a lifetime to click through each one.

For me it is more often a case of not knowing how an action might be described in the list..... We need a glossary! (not that one would help, particularly) At least a casual reader would get some idea of what the various things are called in Cockos-speak.... :D

Some of the actions need lengthy, verbose titles. I'm sure the devs attempt to name them as briefly as possible. Imagine having to name this doozy below, as briefly as possible, whilst describing exactly what it does without any surprises: Track:Render selected area of tracks to mono post-fader stem tracks and mute originals here is another gem: Item: paste items/tracks, creating pooled (ghost) MIDI items, regardless of Preferences/Media settings This one below is so long it has an intro and outro :D : Set default mouse modifier action for "Media item bottom half left click" to "Add a range of items to selection and extend time selection, ignoring snap"

AFAIK, stuff gets added to the action list when: * The Devs add it natively * REAPER Extensions API stuff (eg SWS) are detected on startup * Python or EEL scripts are imported * Custom Actions are imported (which are simply made from existing ones) I agree that the Action List is a gigantic ten-headed behemoth ... but i fail to see how most actions could be condensed any further, without omitting important info about its functions. The ambiguity with cut/delete/remove (one example) is another thing altogether :D It could be much more consistent here, and i think if this happened, ie all instances of, say, delete, had a single title throughout the entire action list, it would be MUCH easier to navigate/browse/search the list.

(grin) apart from when you want to cut and paste! Delete might make things tricky.... I have been mulling over the possibility of having re-nameable actions. At least that way you could alter the title of an action to something that either made sense to YOU or that you could actually remember. Part of it is the total lack of precision of meaning in English of course.

:D re: cut .... you're right, but that still leaves delete/remove :D:D Renaming the actions, at least at the Menu level, is easy (Menu Editor, ReaMenus etc). Globally, i'm pretty sure it can be done with a language pack. Its just that it would take forever to do it. If Langpacks could be exported to plain text (human readable, with no hex) then it could be quickly updated via Notepads "Find and Replace" I've never done one so i'm not sure if this is the case or not.

POtential solution if ever I heard one. Wonder if it is already do-able and I just didnt realise. I dumped reamenus a while back fir the same reasons as I have issues with action list. Seemed like the default settings were working against me and I didnt feel like learning how to customise it, assuming that is/was even possible. Now the SWS extensions, I can see the point & have them installed and up to date.