Edit gear and list items show on click and not appear and disappear.

I would like to have the gear stay on the screen the whole time and on click have the list of items in it appear and stay on the screen. It seems I having some users where the gear flashes and the list items as well making it very hard to click and edit post.

Please advise on exactly where one would make such changes. I realize I may need to mod the template but I also assume there is some js involved in this as well.

Thanks in advance.