disturb and align and object not working... Why?

[l a5E64]

I have split the piece and between each colour on would like a 0.30 inch gap but when I select and align and spacing wanting the word inside the last box red colour only moves.   Why?

[Monika Gause]

Please tell us step by step exactly what you are doing. Please show screenshots of the steps.

[l a5E64]

1 I used the select tool and drag across the objects .

It looks like this once selected .

Then I go to window and select align and click 

go to the three dots to expand 

and select the third icon and type the distance  and choor the gap the second icon close to the( 0 in) box

click okay to apply  and go back the work 

It looks like this .

[Mike_Gondek]

Looks like your groups are wrong. You need to ungroup, Select a color section & approprate type,  group and repeat for each color section.