I select a line of type (not in a text box, just free floating type) by the visible point (on the left of left-aligned type, etc) and drag it to a guide. The cursor lights up indicating a snap, and from a distance the type appears to be correctly aligned to the guide. But when I zoom right up on this point I find that often it's off. (Not all the time, but often enough for it be a real problem.)

I note that Andrew Macrae's recent post <jonf "Please snap OBJECT to guides, not cursor!" 3/26/04 4:09pm </cgi-bin/webx?14@@.2cd0e0fd/0>> discusses how a point on an object will not snap to guides unless you select the object by that specific point. Instead, rather pointlessly (excuse the pun), the location of the cursor will snap. Should we assume then, in relation to my problem, that this is a bug whereby Illustrator is not recognizing that the point has been selected and is instead snapping to the cursor?

This may be a good argument against cursor snapping -- if the user is not aware that they haven't actually got a point selected, they may fairly assume that a point is snapping to a guide when in fact it may be just out. For me, this is the most frustrating thing about working with Illustrator. In recent versions I've found myself developing the habit of zooming up after a drag and snap just to make sure it snapped correctly. What an efficiency killer! This should not be.

It does not seem to matter whether 'Type Object Selection by Path Only' is ticked in the preferences.