For this we recommend selecting multiple cells and doing them all at the same time rather than one by one. Using keyboard shortcuts, if you are editing a cell, hit Esc to focus the cell, then hit Shift-K to select the current cell and move up, or Shift-J to select the current cell and move down. Then hit . (Period) to toggle whether the selected cells are pinned, or click the corresponding pin button in the toolbar.
You can also Command-click the left gutter to select cells with the mouse.
We’ve consolidated all the controls into the toolbar rather than repeating the controls separately on each cell. The new design favors bulk actions on multiple cells rather than repeating actions for each cell. And it means the controls don’t move when you move between cells, or appear and disappear (as much) when you hover over different parts of the notebook; the toolbar is always in the same location to improve predictability, and the user interface is more stable.
The mode menu is an exception… It’s nice to see the cell mode in the cell itself because it affects how you read the code. And there isn’t yet a way to change the mode of multiple cells. I’d like to add that soon, as well as some more discoverable ways to select cells, like the checkboxes we have in the old editor.
Anyway, I’m sorry if you dislike the new interface but I thought you might like to know our rationale and I hope the new interface will grow on you after you spend more time with it. Thank you for the feedback!