I've had Sonar Pro over a year now and I still work a lot faster using 8.5.3. I only use the new one for new features in editing. Is there any way to make it look like and work like Sonar 8.5.3?

There's a pretty cool Sonar 8.5 theme in the repository:
http://forum.cakewalk.com...tilities-m3392713.aspx

Basically no.
 
And 8.5 is no longer supported by Cakewalk, nor is it being updated.

tnipe- thank you. Do you know what the theme is called? Haven't found it yet.

Unfortunately, Jonesey's correct. The answer is "no". You can, of course, customize colors and appearance so it superficially looks more like 8.5, but program behaviors are baked into the executable and for the most part cannot be changed.
 
As a longtime holdout for 8.5 myself (I skipped X1, X2, X3 and the first 2 years of X-whatever-this-is-now) I too found the switch awkward at first. But as I no longer had 8.5 on my new computer I had no choice but to commit to the new paradigm. The good news is that now, a year-and-a-half later, I have fully adjusted and no longer feel the least bit encumbered by the new environment.
 
And I'm an old man who still keeps a DOS window open at all times - if I can adapt, anybody can!

Apparently a lot of people like the old GUI. Here's what I found thanks --
http://forum.cakewalk.com...85-theme-m3520561.aspx

I'm exactly the same story as Bitflipper. I ended up with a copy of X1LE and the whole take lanes and editing drove me nuts,, so I held on to 8.5 up until X3e. At that point this forum was now reporting a stable version. I saved a lot of money skipping those nasty X versions and I think within a week or so I sorted out X3. I still have no clue about take lanes and just ignore there existance. 
I was keeping good ol' 8.5 installed for a long time but now I only use Splat without any desire of ever wanting 8.5 back. I also run Home Studio on a laptop and often will miss a Splat feature even doing simple stuff. 
 
Just forget 8.5 and spend more time with Platinium you'll soon, like all of us, forget 8.5 even existed. 
But yes, the dark look of the new Sonars is depressing. I just suck it up as messing with trivial things like that takes away from my fun. 

you can set up the custom module for custom buttons like "Save, Copy, Paste, Split, exc.
It seems like a lot of users (including myself) really like the icons on the header (control bar portion) of Sonar 8.5.
The custom module kind of helps with that.
Then get yourself a Sonar 8.5 theme and see if you like it.

☺

mister happy
 
My one true love

LOL
Looks good Mr H.