There is no easy fix for this that I know of, UNLESS you are using a weapon
that can also be used as a ranged weapon.

Once I bought a Dirk, which can be a ranged weapon, I have no problems with
my inventory buttons.

These are my buttons:
Melee Weapon spot 1:
Melee Weapon spot 2:
Ranged Weapon spot:
Invventory 1:
Inventory 2:

So when I want to switch, I move the Dirk from my hand to the Ranged Weapon
spot, then I switch my shield with the instrument I want to play. I don't
need an empty inventory spot.

Wayne

> Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 12:37:21 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Jesse <j@...>
>Subject: instrument switching and inventory
>
>
>When playing my new bard, I took a common suggestion I heard of making
>hotkeys for the two melee slots and several (four) invetory slots. I have
>bags/boxes in my other four slots.
>
>This makes it very easy to switch instruments/weapons.
>
>I was wondering, is there any trick to keeping those inventory slots open
>(i.e. free of random loot) without manually having to put every item into
>a bag? I bought a mandolin and horn to fill 2 more slots, but there's
>still 1 empty slot (which needs to stay empty, so when I swap out 1
>instrument, there's room for a shield + weapon). Anytime I look anything
>it gets automatically dropped into that slot, which is very annoying when
>trying to switch weapons later.
>
>Hopefully there's some good tips out there.
>
>Thanks, =)
>
>---
>Jesse <j@...>
>http://www.lumiere.net/