Aligning while using artboards vs. without is different, why?

[vanillalily]

I'm wondering if anyone can help me as I assume this is a setting. 

When using artboards I can select an item and the align buttons in the toolbar are accessible and I can just align to the artboard without requiring select all. When I'm using just a canvas without artboards I can't. When I select an item the align buttons are greyed out. 

Is there a setting that I can change so that I can align to the canvas without having to select all each time?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Stephen Marsh]

I'm not in front of a computer, but with the move tool active, look under the three dots or the gear/cog icon, there's a drop down menu with alignment options for either selection or canvas.

[vanillalily]

Thank you! So that allows me to align with canvas, so that's amazing BUT now everything will only align with canvas. If I select 2 or more items they will all align with artboard, not each other. If I'm using artboard I can select 2 or more items and they will align among themselves without aligning to the canvas. 

I hope that makes sense. 

Side note: When I compare the settings between artboard and non-artboard files, artboard does have it as selection, not canvas, it actually can't be changed to canvas either.

[Stephen Marsh]

Select all before aligning has been a long standing hack to achieve the same result as align to canvas when in selection mode.