Hello,
I appreciate the answer will probably embarrass me, but I am just a beginner

As per the image, I select three circles, select centre horizontal, but the don't align. When I select to align vertically they seem to align to the left, then subsequent clicks of align they move slightly more towards each other but never centre, and when I select multiple items the alignment goes even more odd. What fiendishly complex system is going on with what I thought would be a simple align shapes centred on the last one?

thanks.

Sorry, my fault, it was that 'treat selection as group'.

What with the background being 30% transparent, this option checked, I don't know who decided on these defaults but they clearly don't cater for the beginner