Hi 
I still use pro audio 9 and lose notes when I paste from the exact start of a bar.  Is there an option in Sonar (or pro audio) that will tack on the previous quarter (or eighth) of a beat of MIDI information w/o having to actually paste from the previous quarter?  Obviously some notes are going to be slightly ahead of the beat occasionally.  It's difficult to find search terms that narrow this down.  
 
Thanks

You could try setting a snap offset on the clip before copying it. Set it at the point you'd like the clip to align with a bar. Search help for "snap offset".
 
These words from the manual sound promising for your application:
 
"Snap offsets allow you to set a point other than the beginning of a clip as the “snap” point used by the Snap to Grid. A snap offset is the number of samples from the beginning of the clip. Snap offsets affect all edits that obey the Snap to Grid setting."

Snap Offset won't be helpful for copying/moving partial clip selections as I gather is the case here.
 
Unfortunately, there is no longer a 'fuzzy' selection option as there was way back in the early days of Cakewalk for DOS when there was no quantizing, and you could only copy entire measures.
 
I suggest you set snap at a value that's big enough to encompass early notes when drag-selecting, but small enough not to accidentally include notes that belong in the previous measure (maybe 1/16), and then use drag-copy/move with Snap 'By' enabled instead of cut/copy-paste to preserve the tick offset of the selection. I think this would be applicable in Pro Audio.
 
In SONAR you can also select in the PRV by lassoing (right-click and drag across a time and pitch range) which will select entire notes by just touching them, but I don't think Pro Audio had a Lasso function.

Snap offset doesn't even work on MIDI, sorry. Ctrl-drag with "Snap by" is the way to go as Dave says. Time-selecting could be done with snap off to allow precise note selection.
 
FYI with audio in Sonar it does work to set a snap offset in a clip, then select part of that clip including the snap offset and ctrl-drag it so the snap offset lines up in the destination snap grid. But then might as well use "snap by". Copy-paste doesn't respect snap offset. So much for "Snap offsets affect all edits that obey the Snap to Grid setting."
 
 

Thanks for the previous replies.
Today I have been punching in by using the staff view.  I can select the resolution down to 16th notes and then Shift/left arrow to scroll through backwards by that small increment.  So I autopunch in and out 1/16th early.  
Obviously, this doesn't work for cut/paste drag/drop.  That's probably best as I get a little lazy just re-using exact sections!  
Thanks again