Knife tool nightmare illustrator CS

[markJ]

I am trying to cut a simple single line across an object with fill and stroke and no effects inside of illustrator CS, but it keeps giving me a double line, heading back toward the origin but not on it. I am not pointing the knife back as I finish the cut. Also when I press ALT to get a straight line cut, it gives an error message, anyone else had these experiences with CS..? I`m losing my marbles on it.

[Albacore]

I had to go back and use the knife tool as I rarely use it but I am trying to understand your question. Let's make it simple if you draw a rectanle and use the knife tool to slice all that you will get is two extra anchor points in the rectangle where you sliced it with a line connecting those anchor points. What you do then is go to the Object menu and select expand and that will divide the rectangle up. Don't get any errors when using Alt.

This might point to the fact that your copy of AI is corrupt and you may have to reinstall. I tried the above on both CS and CS3 and got the same results.

[markJ]

thanks Albacore, I copy pasted the work to a new illustrator file and it worked as you described. Cut cleanly across just once, not twice in random direction.