Alignment headaches

[Foxrock]

Hi. I'm designing some labels and need help with what should be a simple problem. The layout is Avery 8164, basically 2X4 blocks but that doesn't really matter. The problem is, I want to be able to align a piece of text to the centre of each individual rectangle. Unfortunately, central alignment moves both the rectangle and the text. Now, the rectangle has moved away from its original position in the layout.

Is there a way of telling one element to stay where during an alignment instruction?

I know there's probably other ways of doing this but I'd really like a solution to this problem.

 

[dimoj]

Click on what you want to align to last.

 

[Foxrock]

Sorry, I don't understand. To be able to align two objects, I have to select them both and hit align. It doesn't seem to matter what order I select them in.

 

[dimoj]

Sorry for my vagueness. Select both objects and then single click on the object that you want to stay in place. Then hit Align in the Pathfinder.

 

[Foxrock]

That did it! Many thanks for that.