Group not aligning to the part of object

[radon5DF0]

Group not aligning to the part of object.

Please have a look at this video.

[Jacob Bugge]

radon,

 I believe the video will be more (easily) comprihensible if the expanded Layer is shown in full so the lower selected parts can also be seen,thus revealing the structure of everything.

[Mike_Gondek]

You used the hollow arrow tool to select items. They might be part of groups such as masks or compounds. Use the solid arrow tool, and release items as needed.

[radon5DF0]

Please have a look to new video. 

I hope you will get my point this time.

The smiley is supposed to get center aligned to the selection only. But it is getting center aligned to the whole object.

[Jacob Bugge]

radon,

Thank you for the video clarification.

I believe you can do it with least suffering if you:

1) Hold Alt/Option and Click the desired part of the Compound Path (to select it in its entirety), then hold Ctrl/Cmd and Click C then F then X then F (to create a new full path on top);

2) With the normal Selection Tool Select the smiley, then ShiftClick the new path from 1) and Click it again (to have it as the key object), then Align;

3) Delete the new path.

And I believe Mike was hinting at a way which in the actual case would mean that you release the Compound Path, then Align, then Make the Compound Path again.