Just a couple of things to add to this thread. I think its fair to say that the X series of SONAR is a new product so its expected that a very  experienced pre X user would have a (re)learning curve. Depending on the person and situation learning something new can be easy, enjoyable or incredibly frustrating if you are forced to do it at an inopportune time. This is even more applicable to prevously expert users since relearning is more difficult  than learning something new. My suggestion is to do this gradually and not when you are under a deadline. 
 
Regarding the X series, the design of X1 started out by re-imagining the user interface design to favor a streamlined workflow that adopted modern UI paradigm's to make it most intuitive to a new user. We acknowledged that the pre X versions UI had become so fragmented and cluttered that it was very confusing to new users of the program, and difficult for us to expand upon. The only option was a complete rethink and redesign of the user interface. It was a painful decision to make for us and fallout was inevitable, but it was necessary for the future evolution of the product. It took several iterations to get better but at this point for most people the new user experience and workflow in X3 is far superior to anything that we had before. Skylight, quick grouping, prochannel, smart tools and general user interface are just a few areas that have been drastically improved.
 
Once you bridge the learning curve there is no way you will want to work with the old pre X workflow. Anyway I'm glad to see some older users moving on to X3. 

For me personally, X3 finally felt like there were many great new features, as opposed to mainly relearning how to do stuff I already could before. I respect and understand the decision to move away from the old workflow.

2 hours a day for a week on groove3 tutorials plus reading Sonar X1 powered book cover to cover nailed it for me. Always something new to learn though.

FCCfirstclass
 
 GO SEAHAWKS from a 12th man in Nevada.
 

Woo hoo!
 
Yesterday a magazine in the UK ranked my album in his top 100 of 2013,
and I came in at #12
... and my artist name is Jim of Seattle . If that's not an omen I don't know what is. And a couple weeks ago I was #3 on another list, which is of course Russell Wilson's number. Today is also my birthday. All signs point to a win!
 
GO HAWKS!!!
 
Anyway...
 
Since I'm bringing up all this random stuff that's annoyed me forever in X3, here's another one: I'm now easily switching between Notes and Clips Edit Filters in Track View. But when I'm viewing notes, if I add a few, the background starts to be various darker shades of gray. Is this a clip thing? How can I make it so it doesn't do that, and the background stays the same color?
 
I seem to have a lot of issues around keyboard shortcuts. A lot of the ones people are so kindly suggesting aren't working for me. Shift-Right click changes the Edit Filter in one track, but in another, it adds a velocity envelope... huh? And Jlien X suggested Shift-C to hide velocity skyscrapers, but that doesn't do anything for me. And there have been others in the previous days. In some cases I already had a custom shortcut for a keystroke, but not in all, and when I changed them, sometimes they stick and sometimes not. Anyone know why this is?
 
Minor victory footnote: Lying in bed this morning I decided that the cool chromatic descending line that's now two bars long needs to be four bars long and have some different rhythms. Before I started this thread, I probably might have thought it's not worth all the X3 hassle, or might have decided to do it, but then spent a long frustrating time making it happen. This morning, took just a few moments. YOU PEOPLE ARE AWESOME!!

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
Just a couple of things to add to this thread. I think its fair to say that the X series of SONAR is a new product so its expected that a very  experienced pre X user would have a (re)learning curve. Depending on the person and situation learning something new can be easy, enjoyable or incredibly frustrating if you are forced to do it at an inopportune time. This is even more applicable to prevously expert users since relearning is more difficult  than learning something new. My suggestion is to do this gradually and not when you are under a deadline. 
 
Regarding the X series, the design of X1 started out by re-imagining the user interface design to favor a streamlined workflow that adopted modern UI paradigm's to make it most intuitive to a new user. We acknowledged that the pre X versions UI had become so fragmented and cluttered that it was very confusing to new users of the program, and difficult for us to expand upon. The only option was a complete rethink and redesign of the user interface. It was a painful decision to make for us and fallout was inevitable, but it was necessary for the future evolution of the product. It took several iterations to get better but at this point for most people the new user experience and workflow in X3 is far superior to anything that we had before. Skylight, quick grouping, prochannel, smart tools and general user interface are just a few areas that have been drastically improved.
 
Once you bridge the learning curve there is no way you will want to work with the old pre X workflow. Anyway I'm glad to see some older users moving on to X3. 

Thanks for chiming in Noel, well said. Cakewalk's thought process and approach around the UI switch to the X series as you described is pretty much exactly what I thought was going on. So all along I've kind of suspected I needed to re-learn, and the "fragmented and cluttered" nature of the pre-X versions had become second nature. I had become used to scratching my left ear with my right hand, until at some point that seemed like the most intuitive thing in the world. Really, kudos to everyone on this forum for helping me begin to learn how to properly scratch my ear.

jkoseattle
But when I'm viewing notes, if I add a few, the background starts to be various darker shades of gray. Is this a clip thing? How can I make it so it doesn't do that, and the background stays the same color?

 
I'm not at the daw now so I can't tell you under which menu you can find it, but there's an option called "Show Clip Outlines," which you need to turn off if you don't want to see the shades.
 

jkoseattle 
I seem to have a lot of issues around keyboard shortcuts. A lot of the ones people are so kindly suggesting aren't working for me.

 
I suggest you reset all keybindings by clicking "Zap All" and start from scratch. I've also had an experience of not being able to remove a self-assigned command from a certain key. I had it overwritten by another command but strangely the old command still worked, and I contacted support and never received a reply. The only way I could remove the keybinding was to use Zap All.
 

+1 to jko sticking it out! It is frustrating when people come in, drop a bomb, and leave. They miss out on the best asset CW has... this forum. No one is in here to see anyone fail, and the quickest route to answers is through simple questions.

Yep! I was just going to post a BIG thanks to all the forum GURU's for all their time & effort to help us dummies... YOU ALL ROCK!
 
I'll probably do this anyway, at some point... and I'm glad the OP changed the title so others are encouraged to learn some new things!

I have to agree with what Noel has said in his post .
X3 has been a steep learning curve for me coming from 6 PE …
thankfully I've allowed myself the opportunity not to work w X3 under a deadline ( real or imagined ) 
 
one of the biggest things that I have noticed has been how streamlined and articulate the X3 work flow actually is .
Yet , I still have a long way to go still w learning the X 3 way of doing things.
 
My convincer came in the form of every single time I have taken what I thought was a completely  finished song / project and created a X3 project of that song 
I was able to improve upon and get much more satisfying results with the sound of my music ….
 
all the best 
 
Kenny