We've added more customization about which dictionaries show up in specific views, but at the moment we actually aren't even planning to offer an option to separately configure which dictionaries are reachable on a button tap versus which ones only show up in the menu at all anymore. It only works in the search screen in 3.0, and the default search screen design in 4.0 no longer has a button at all - it has a segmented control for Chinese / English, with English consolidating E-C and full-text C-E entries in a single list of results, and then when the search box is closed and empty there's a list of dictionaries that takes you to what are basically browse-screens-with-search-boxes for each dictionary.
Seems that 4th version would be more than just a major update, can't wait to try
Is there a particular reason you're looking to have dictionaries in the menu but not on button tap?
First let me name all the instances we might use in the possible upcoming dialogue ))
My 'would-be-consept' is actually inspired by these dictionary filtering options in Pleco's settings, which seemed very natural:
(1) 'Tap-cycle' group (selected by 'Use in reader' option minus those with ticked 'Skip on tap', but as we found out later, this 'Skip' option is for another use and wasn't intended to work here - so it doesn't).
Used for quick lookup in most general, comprehensive dictionaries (like Pleco, ABC, Cedict etc).
The advantage of narrowing this group is in not having to tiresomely cycle-tap through multiple dictionaries but only thru the chosen ones.
It's essential however to switch to other (successful) dictionaries if no matches are found in this basic group. Otherwise we won't be able to find the word absent in this group (though available in other dicts) through bubble popup, which is unacceptable.
(2) 'Long-tap menu' group (selected by 'Use in reader' option minus those with ticked 'Don't show in menu' -
in fact dictionaries from 'Use in dictionary' are used here as basic group instead! - maybe it's a contradictory error here, one of consequences is that you can tap the dict that exists in the menu but not in the 'Use in reader' group - and so this tap would result in nothing).
Extended group for additional dictionaries which would make the 'Tap-cycling' too long and hence not added there.
Takes a few moments longer to get to it (1 long tap + 1 short tap compared to single short taps in 'Tap-cycle' group). Takes longer => but gives more options, sounds logical to me ))
(3) 'View in reader' group. Is formed from dictionaries with 'Use in reader' tick-box active. Opens on tapping appropriate button. Now in fact is equal to the (1) 'Tap-cycle' group. Could be used to include all dictionaries, including the most rare and exotic ones. I guess shall be used as basic for the (3) 'Long-tap menu' group but it isn't, instead the (4) group is used now (in detail below).
(4) 'Search' group. Is formed from dictionaries with 'Use in dictionary' tick-box active. Opens on tapping appropriate button. Can be used as another custom set of dictionaries (already implemented and works). Is mistakenly (?) used now instead of the (3) 'View in reader' group as a base group for the (2) 'Long-tap menu' group.
Would it be sufficient if the menu displayed *all* dictionaries and the customization only applied to tap cycles?
The short answer is 'yes'.
The long one: cycle through the pre-select dicts
but lookup in all available not to miss a word and if found a better match, then force show results even from the dicts not in the 'Tap-cycle' group (further cycling in this case won't be possible, tapping shows only successful dict(s) like Pleco behaves in similar cases). Otherwise best match won't be captured, we'll have a 'worse match' instead (from the 'Tap-cycle' group dicts), and lookup this 'worse match' via long-tap menu in a dictionary, which might have the best match but, as it didn't participate in capturing - so it didn't provide this 'best' result.
But it would also be very convenient to keep untouched the existing 'Don't show in menu' option since some dictionaries are not needed in the bubble popup but are highly welcome in the 'View in dictionary'. Plus it's already implemented and working (except for the wrong basic 'Use in dictionary' group but that could and should be easily corrected I hope).
Having a second set of visibility settings for the menu is a lot of extra checkboxes for something I'm skeptical many people would use.
Pleco has so many options, details and choices but I've never seen a single not-needed one. Without any little and seemingly not-so-important (but in fact - the 'last mile') features Pleco won't be itself and that's one of the reasons I as well as many users around the world render Pleco as the best piece of software not only in the Chinese learning area.
Just recently I re-proved this to myself after having sorted out all the features Pleco has for flashcards, that was a real discovery )) Wouldn't have managed with all this until I had tried and understood every little option (each in its place, can't be removed or substituted) in the Flashcards section.