Sonar X1 display on 1388x768 laptop

I just recently installed my X1 license on a laptop with the mind to migrate to X1, and I was really disappointed with the new UI changes.  It seems Cakewalk redesigned the UI for X1 users that have either big or multiple monitor setups.  For remote live recording on a laptop, the new UI is really difficult to work with.  My workflow has always been to have an open window of the track view and a console view under 8.5 that I could resize  to dock the console view to the right side of the screen and have the track view on the left.  Or have them overlap in a way that made it easy to click between the two views if needed.

Why is the console view only dockable to the top or bottom in X1?  I can never see the full fader view of the bottom docked console in X1, and resizing it to be moderately useful means the track view is completely unusable.  What's worse is if I undock the console view, I can't click back to the track view, which is NEVER undockable because the Console view always overlays it.  What?  I guess I must be too much of an "old school" mixer who's set in his ways from the early days of Sonar till now, but these changes have started me seriously thinking that it might be time to stop upgrading and just stick with 8.5 for fixed resolution laptops.

So here's the million dollar question.  How are other users doing remote live work on a laptop dealing with the bloated UI view of X1 on a 1388x768 display resolution?  Is there a plan to ever make the Track view dockable so that it can float like the console view?  In my opinion this would be really awesome since you could throw everything in the floating dock view and simply click on the tab between Console and Track at the top if you wanted to quickly switch between the two.  Or you could do as I describe and dock the Console to the right and the Track view to the Left.

Also, why is the Control Bar so huge now?  It's about 3 times larger than it was on 8.5, and there doesn't seem to be a way to make it smaller (a compressed view perhaps, or a Control Bar Lite that doesn't span 3 lines of UI?).  Older versions of Sonar had this ability, and Cubase still has a small transport control that can be floated pretty much anywhere.  I'm still learning the ins and outs of the new interface, so if someone knows where to configure this, I'd be most appreciative.

Jind


You should look into using screensets and dive into how the multidock works - you can have both Track view and Console view as full screens and easily switch between the two.  While you may have to learn some keyboard shortcuts (which to be honest, speeds up workflow more than any mouse clicking between windows ever will (personal opinion, but I can't imagine working without utilizing keyboard shortcuts).  Watch some of FastBikerBoy' videos on screensets:  http://www.youtube.com/user/ReallyFastBikerBoy?feature=mhee#p/u

He also has some on the multidock.

I'll admit it is a bit of homework to learn how to utilize the new UI, but I've found once I took the time, I unproved my speed in Sonar significantly.  Unfortunately it has to be learned to fully become capable with it.

I'm sure others will pop in and add some suggestions.

Once you become more used to it,you'll find that its views are way more customizable than the short time I spent with 8.5,and FBB's videos are definitely worth a look for sure.

X1 is designed for 1920x1080 and above so you will definitely run into screen usage issues no matter what you do. Multidock can help but your small screen still only allows so much visible space.
 
My old laptop was 15.4" 1280x800 max. and it was frustrating. I first plugged into a 24" monitor which helped greatly but ultimately splurged on a 17.3 " laptop with 1920x1080 res. It was spendy but made all the difference in the world.
 
Steve