Choosing RGB color in Illustrator (swatches and sliders remain in CMYK)

Question

I'm making a simple template to laser cut. The laser cutter acts as a printer and you choose the power, speed, etc. for each colour that is in the document. I only want to cut, so I only have RGB red lines at 0.001 pt thickness. Or at least that was the plan. One of the shapes in my template has come out a different red (the swatches were CMYK despite the document colour mode being RGB). I would now like to select all the paths in the document and make them all RGB red. However, when I open the colour panel from the dock the sliders are CMYK, again this is despite the document colour mode being RGB:
How do I change all the paths to be RGB red?
How do I stop Illustrator offering me CMYK options and swatches and offering RGB instead?
Message was edited by: Dumble_dad adding missing words

Answer 1

Dumble-dad,
I changed the panel to RGB, but now it is only offering me the K slider!
If you have ticked RGB and got Grayscale, there must be something wrong, quite possibly in your preferences.
Here is a general list of things to try when strangeness strikes (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps (the following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file; 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences):
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6, and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html