I agree that the current spell/item bar is ungainly and hard to manage. It appears that it will be impossible once a highly level is reached. It probably is temporary.
A great and more elegant solution would be something akin to Bioware's Neverwinter Nights pop-up "wheel" for casting, with it's multiplicity of easy to pick choices for spell level, etc. I always thought that was the siimplist, cleanest and most functional way of dealing with this sort of confusing clutter of any rpg game.
