There is nothing to prevent both views from being displayed at the same time.

Snap to grid resolution is settable in either Staff or PRV. All S2G does is set the default resolution where a note will "snap to" the closest one. Set it to quarters and insert a note and it will snap to the closest quarter beat. Same thing with eights, sixteenths and so on. Shut it off and it will place the note exactly where you place it with no snapping involved. I often work in this mode.
 
The note duration is set and edited by choosing the note duration from the toolbar.....or, by right clicking on the note and opening the NOTE PROPERTIES window. In there, you can change the velocity, volume, pitch, start, and ending (duration) of the note.

The problem is that it doesn't seem possible to change the snap to grid settings in staff/notion view, Guitarhacker. :( It's either on or off (and this too seems to be a hidden feature, the "N" key, as the setting options on the control bar are completely irrelevant to the grid settings.)
 
Anyway, I guess maybe I could have the staff view and the piano roller view open at the same time... But it's pretty unwieldly. And I don't really want to write in piano roller anyway. I mean what am I some kind of player piano typesetter? I guess the answer is there is no answer. Not to sound troll-y but the functionality just isn't there.

jabbapop
 And I don't really want to write in piano roller anyway. I mean what am I some kind of player piano typesetter? I guess the answer is there is no answer.

I'll have a look in a bit. Writing in staff is essentially the same as writing in PRV... it's just 2 ways of accomplishing the same thing. Which ever is easier.  Some folks simply love PRV.  It does actually make a few things easier to do.