LNMB and Mike W: Select the text box with the closed arrow, then in the appearance panel, click on new stroke, make it what you want (twice the width of course because half of it will be behind your type), and drag it below the characters, as you would if you were rejiggering layers in the layers panel. You can't do that if you highlight with the text tool. Bummer, I know, for those of us who are used to using InDe.

Below is a link to a youtube vid that shows how to do it. The version of Illustrator in the video is really old, but the concept is the same. It still ain't InDe though.

We do it this way all the time in packaging layout when type has to be outlined for visibility (think legally required in a particular place on a package, like net weight).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_YqzHbIH-c

Mike W. - You can't highlight the text to apply Michael's work around. This still doesn't work for an actual text stroke. However, you can do as he suggests by applying an additional fill and stroke to the selected box that contains the text in the appearance panel. Essentially, you'll end up with your type as a certain color fill, and then you'll have an additional fill and stroke on top of it for the selected text box (which means that you won't change your actual text color but rather your text box's appearance fill/stroke if you want to change colors for the text). Hopefully that makes sense.

Derek Cook: Sorry, it doesn't. At least, I can't get it to work.

Please make this happen. It is literally a feature that even coreldraw had. The work around is annoying, and its even more frustrating that your other products like InDesign allow you to do it, but not illustrator. Why?! Where is the consistency?

Thanks Michael Gore. The Appearance panel under Type - strokes work fine.

Please please fix this!! I am still shocked that after all this time that this isn't a thing. Out of all Adobe apps Illustrator needs it.

I agree, this would help immensely. It's especially weird that InDesign can align the stroke to the outer edge of text, but not Illustrator.

There's no need to create a graphic style first to do this, you just need to apply the appearance to the Type and not the Characters in the Appearance panel (which is what happens when applying a graphic style). Then you can drag the stroke beneath the fill, and add additional strokes if desired. Technically the stroke is still being aligned center, but now it's not cutting into the fill.

You CAN have inner & outer strokes on text if you apply a graphic style to your text first. Once you have the inner & outer strokes available, you can create additional inner & outer aligned strokes. I created a graphic style by making a simple shape with 3 strokes - an inside, an outside and a center stroke. I made them each a different color and moved the center stroke to the top (not essential to do - it's just to make them easier to see - my personal preference). Create your new style using this shape. You can apply this style to your text and your text will have all 3 types of strokes. If you want to add additional strokes, in the appearance panel just select the stroke that has the type you want and either drag it down onto the new icon to duplicate it or just click on the new icon and the new stroke will have the same alignment as the one previously selected. Turn off the visibility on any strokes that you don't need. You could delete them, but I would suggest just leaving them so that they're available for future editing. Clearly this proves that text CAN have strokes aligned to the inside or the outside of the path, so WHY do we have to jump through this extra hoop in order to do it? We should be able to change the stroke alignment directly on the text in the first place.

Yes! Please please please add this. The workarounds are so annoying. I don't understand aligning stroke to outside isn't possible, what gives?!

I made the leap to Illustrator after many years using CorelDRAW, and this feature is one of maybe six that I still miss.

I'm surprised this doesn't have more traction. I would argue that one of the most important features of Illustrator is maintaining editability. Why should we have to outline our text in order to use stroke alignment? It makes no sense to hinder a feature this way.

Maybe I use Illustrator in a way that is outside of the norm, but I wish I could add more weight to my vote. I would think logo designers would be all over this feature request.

@Dan Changing the order of the stroke in the Appearance panel does not enable stroke alignment--at least not in Illustrator 22.0.1.

You can actually do this by moving the stroke below the characters in the appearance panel. Although it can be quite buggy.

Also! I don't understand why aligning strokes don't work for open paths. I have to build custom width profile to simulate this — 0 at on side, full width on the other. Why? You think that people will be angry, when outside will look like inside, because of path direction? Make a button for changing it to Stroke palette already.