duckbar is a decent solution, just keep in mind that it voids tech support unless you uninstall it first.
but it is a great alternative to shortcuts.

I myself live by the keyboard shortcut and work faster than I ever have using them.
its not just sonar either, a lot of programs have gone to keyboard shortcuts.
some even only have shortcuts to achieve certain thing you are trying to do.

I feel your pain but unfortunately, this is changing everywhere.
 
just like you trained your eye to click and drag with the mouse, youll do the same with K-shortcuts
and if you don't, well your work (production) will suffer. its as easy as that.
like chreg says, they become second nature after awhile. 

I do not believe that Duckbar modifies SONAR unless you elect to do so. If Duckbar is used for the extra toolbar icons only, nothing is done to SONAR itself. There would be nothing to uninstall to get back to factory SONAR, just run SONAR without launching it from Duckbar. Of course, if one modifies the SONAR executable or resource file then those might have to be backed out for CW support.

Can duckbar allow me to change PRV functionality to the way it was in sonar 4? If not, is there someone I can contact that can make this happen?

Shortcut keys are good. But most shortcut keys I use I learned from the tool tip pop ups from mousing over icons I use a lot. 

Sibelius is a program that relies on shortcut keys. I don't use the program enough to memorize them. So every time I think of using the program I get lazy and don't!

Ddamaged1, I agree with you totally about keyboard shortcuts, but unfortunately the argument has long been lost.

I don't think there's much point in continuing discussion on the matter as you can be sure that Cakewalk is fully aware that some of us dislike them.

This is not a complaint towards you, I'm just pointing out that the cause is lost.

I'm planning on getting myself some sort of button array (real or virtual) that I can map to keyboard shortcuts.

I just bought sonar platinum and they still haven't addressed my issues. In fact, it has created more issues to my workflow.

I don't want to have to download an app like duckbar just to get what i want.

I want to be able to copy across tracks in Piano Roll View. This means that if i highlight notes on a track in PRV, i want to select another track and ctrl+v those notes that I have highlighted into the new track i have selected on the right track pane in PRV. This helps me to double parts or copy note values into other tracks on the fly without having to do any additional steps. As it is now, when i click the notes i have highlighted, it brings me back to it's track. This is not what I want.

The smart tool is not so smart. I don't want to click and drag to write my notes in PRV! I just want to click and viola! I have my note! I also would like to be able to highlight my notes by clicking and dragging over notes! It can all be possible with the smart tool, but for whatever reason, we are not allowed to tweak it. Id also like to right click over notes to delete them.

I do not want to have to use the keyboard to switch functions as i am unnecessarily forced to do. I do not want to switch views to manipulate notes as I want to. I get so jumbled up doing these tedious extra steps that i forget the notes im trying to write out on the fly because i spent too much time jumbling about!

Sonar has failed to differentiate for me for the past 10 years. They had it right with Sonar 2. Even Cakewalk 8!! I have spent alot of money on this product and it is the best thing out there, but it is not perfect. I really hope one day my simple requests will be fulfilled. 10 years is a long time.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Features-Ideas-f76.aspx
 
Regards,
Dan
 

The smart tool is not so smart. I don't want to click and drag to write my notes in PRV! I just want to click and viola! I

 
I prefer to click and violin, but I guess that's just me. 
 
You can enter notes using the mouse in 2 ways - double click, or alt + click
 

 I also would like to be able to highlight my notes by clicking and dragging over notes!

 
Try right clicking & dragging