There's definitely a transition from old Sonar to the X way of doing things, and it will seem weird at first. But seriously, you can teach yourself how to use the thing in about an hour, and you'll never look back.
 
Brundlefly's tip above about shift clicking on things to change edit modes is the key to your particular thing. Once you get into that habit, you can fly around. That's the main way I switch between clip editing and automation editing. Hardly ever use the drop-down.

Yes John, Brundlefly's tip is very enlightening to the whole process.
 
any other good modifiers, or general splat tips like that.

I'm so long into it now, it's hard to think of any specific tips. I suppose I'd describe it like this.

Pre X-series, I used to have my hand constantly hovering over modifier keys, and I was pretty fast with all that. And when X1 came out, my reaction was a lot like yours: my awesome skillz were redundant, and everything was suddenly slower. But I got with it, and I really turned around. I acquired my current avatar somewhere in the midst of a long thread about this way back about five years ago. Started out as a hater, eventually became a high priest of the order :)
 
I think I'd say it's more a mindset thing. If you can get used to the whole thing about where the hit points are and so on, you'll find it taking a lot of stuff off your hands.

I will say this: I think Cakewalk never quite came out with a good "here's how this works" video, and what they did come out with was patchily linked and promoted. Sonar is really lacking a beginner's guide. I think they're starting to get better on that, but they've got a brilliantly designed, but under-explained, user interface, for my money.

John T
I will say this: I think Cakewalk never quite came out with a good "here's how this works" video, and what they did come out with was patchily linked and promoted. Sonar is really lacking a beginner's guide. I think they're starting to get better on that, but they've got a brilliantly designed, but under-explained, user interface, for my money.

I think Cakewalk would agree with you. I hope to help out in this regard, but that depends mostly on how much the other Gibson Brands need me in the months ahead.

As to the Smart Tool, what got me up to speed was reading the documentation. It has a learning curve, but once you learn it, the workflow becomes so much better. Just the ability to toggle between the different Smart Tool modes is very cool. 
 
One trick I did was put a strip above the QWERTY function keys that shows the correlation to the tools. It became less relevant when I got a touch screen and put the control bar on the bottom, just above the QWERTY keyboard (best of both worlds - keyboard shortcuts and touch) but it did engrain the function keys in my brain.

timidi 
No insult intended Chuck. My displeasure was not  directed at you or anyone else that is trying to help.

 
I understand, my comment was sincere. I can understand your frustration.
another little trick I can offer is for zooming. I used this trick quite a bit before I bought a Mackie control (with built in zoom).
 
1- hover your mouse on the time line until your mouse cursor turns in to a magnifying glass.
2- then left click + Drag up or down to zoom in on all tracks.
 
this shortcut is very useful because its not incorporated with the smart tool.
its simply a way to zoom in and zoom out quickly.

Thanks guys.
 
Thought I'd post this as being some pretty good 'smart' tips.
Starting around 5:00 on this video and some of the videos following.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX6eVdvCQw0
 
Also, to clarify my position, I think the/my confusion lies in the fact that the "smart tool" is not an isolated tool but must be used in conjunction with the hud to have any percieved intelligence. 

Yes Tim, this is very true.
 
I'm not sure if this is the default with other mice, (mouses?), but clicking the scroll wheel brings up the HUD giving immediate access to all the other tools.
 
But, I do find that as I grow more & more used to the Smart Tool, I find I can do 90% of all tasks without having to switch tools. Learning where the hotspots are takes you a BIG step towards using it properly

Have you considered typing "smart tool" in help?

There is an incredibly detailed description on how to use the smart tool in any situation, including all modifiers.

RSMCGUITAR
Have you considered typing "smart tool" in help?

There is an incredibly detailed description on how to use the smart tool in any situation, including all modifiers.

Well yea scott. When I search for smart tool in the sonar help, I get a spate of possible topics that mention smart tools but don't necessarily tell you how to use it.