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I love being able to use generated media for creating racing stripes, bumpers, lower thirds, masks, and banners.

I like that I can highlight an area on the timeline and then right click to add generated media and or text. It makes it the same size as my highlighted area. Before, I would create a text event and then adjust it's length, often times messing up my keyframes.

I really enjoy the fact you can copy the contents of the edit details window (markers, regions) and copy them in word or excel and they will be nicely formatted (tables and all!)

I like being able to take out of focus shots and use dual layers with sharpen, curves, and opacity to create the illusion of a better focus.

I like being able to park the playback head on a location on the timeline, and then grab the event and slide it back and forth while leaving the playback head (curser position) planted and still being able to scrub. Most NLE's, the curser position jumps everytime you click on a clip. This has been useful for editing video to audio.

I like that you can double click on any slide bar control and it goes right to the zero setting... (Thanks SPOT, right off your Vegas DVD!). I find myself double clicking other programs' slide bars and nothing happens. That's when I swear at my Photoshop program.

Unlike you lucky ones that own Photoshop I have a cheesy consumer app (Roxio Photo Suite). I wanted to stitch three .JPEGs together but Roxio wouldn't let me since they were different sizes. I thought well maybe I can layer them and crop to make one JPEG but couldn't find out how in Roxio (if it is indeed capable of doing so). Then I thought about how V5 can do anything but make my morning coffee and put the 3 JPEGs on 3 tracks with a solid white generated media below all, cropped above tracks and made exactly what I needed.
Randy

I love being able to copy & paste event attributes and keyframes.

My Vegas makes coffee.

I like being able to do almost anything while the video is playing (change fX settings, sound controls, etc.). I learned this watching Spot. He almost never stops the playback.

I love how you can double-click in various useful places to create a loop/region and then use that to easily line up events on multiple tracks. I use this all the time to do transitions across tracks.

Not exactly a tip or trick, but....I love how it never crashes!

I like how you can program it so that it can perform a BUNCH of preset tasks at the touch of a button.

Technically, it has crashed on me a couple of times. (or just locked up). But everything was saved when I rebooted. All I had to do was re-name the file. I still don't think I know half of what it can do and I'm still on Vegas 4d. I like being able to make DVDs of me being an entire band, playing every instrument and the ability to make numerous add on tracks, both video and audio, special FX and all sorts of transitions and text. It pretty much does everything I want and a lot more than I expected.

Most of the time, I love the community that the software embues. I learn a lot of unique ways to more quickly accomplish tasks just from reading various posts.
I love scripting and the doors it opens to brilliant guys like Johnny Roy, John Meyer, Randy Campbell, and JetDV.
I'm a huge fan of the 5.1 surround tools. The Cineform plug w/Vegas is a wonderful pair as well. Can't complain at all about the Bezier tool as I use this a lot these days.
My USB script that turns on the coffee maker as soon as a render begins, and then turns on the dishwasher as the render finishes is pretty sweet, and of course, I love the way Vegas integrates with my SD Connect for access to Beta format media.

The Bézier masks is my favorite V5 feature. You can use it for so many things...

I like the speed.

If someone asks "how can I do this?" I can have it up and running try the effect work through the details and answer the question. (sometimes.)

Then I have just learned something new and save the veg to remember it by.

Favorite Feature:

I like compositing with 3D Track Motion. Any other NLE requires you to use another application to do this but Vegas does it right on the timeline. You can really make some nice introductions using multiple moving windows in 3D space.

Favorite Tip/Trick:

Double clicking on the timeline horizontal scrollbar quickly jumps to show you the whole project at once. Great for navigating to a much later or earlier point in the video. Double clicking on the vertical scrollbar quickly collapses and expands the track view to show more/less tracks. (Did that count as one or two tips because they were both scrollbar double-clicks so it should be one. I always get confused in the “15 items or less” line if two cans of beans count as one because its just beans?)

~jr

The photo animation is one of my favorites. The ease of going between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios (as long as you aren't using 5d). I've just discovered some of the scripting features and they are quickly becoming my new favorite feature.

I'm with the Gr8 one.
Vegas is so robust that it seems there is always something new.( By the way I started using the 'make coffee' feature last summer. I use a french press and the 'grind setting' was tricky at first.)
I love this forum.

I love how it looks and behaves like a Windows application, not something with a goofy or incomprehensible interface.

Pierre