Apparently I'm not doing something right. I want the staff view to reflect
triplets when played or step recorded or written in the the mouse. Using
Cakewalk Pro Audio 8

Any tips will be appreciated.

Cakewalk has that tricky put the note in the right position or you get
a note value other than what you want note entry.

So what I do for the more difficult passages, is take a small value
note, and put it down repeatedly across the measure, some place where
it will not interfere.

Now i know just where to put that note so it gets the right duration.
Then I erase these extra notes.

I do not have your version of cakewalk, but think its probably the same
note entry system, so maybe this might help.

My version has a resolution setting., if its set to quarter note, I
wold not see any triplets, even if they were present, so maybe check if
you have such a setting and pick a smaller allowed note value.