'Align to page' by default when only one element is selected
Right now, if you have a single layout element selected and go to align (Text > Arrange > Align), the alignment options are grayed out until you select 'Align to page.'
Even if you turn that on, the menu then closes, and you need to re-open the menu and align (see also Align menu -- align to page -- do not dismiss menu... - Esri Community ). When I do this, I open the menu a third time to toggle this back off so it works as intended when using it next time with a group of items. This is a lot of clicks (6 by my count, IF the ribbon doesn't auto-hide in between, which it sometimes does) just go get one thing to align center, or whatever I'm trying to do. Compared with other applications that will just default to aligning an item to the page, it's also not the most straightforward.
I propose making this easier by making 'align to page' enabled for single items -- that is, with a single item selected, each alignment option should be available and align to the page every time I open the menu; in fact, if something's grayed out, it should be that 'Align to page' option -- with a single item, there is nothing else to align to. So it would make sense and be really useful in my workflows -- going from 6 clicks to 2 would be very welcome.
A note: this is exactly how it works in Office products. If I have a multi-selection, it uses whatever I last selected.
If I have a single selection, it knows that I would only want to align it to the page (aligning to selected objects is not possible).
If Esri is going to steal UI's, steal them completely!