In InDesign, Horiztonal/Vertical Align Center aligns selections to the center point between the outside edges of a selection group. Whereas in Illustrator, Horizontal/Vertical Align Center seems to average the center points of the selection group. Having used both, it seems like the InDesign functionality is more intuitive: Position the widest/tallest object where you want it to be, then align everything else to it.
Maybe it's just me, but I've never needed/wanted Illustrator to align a bunch of selections to their average center point. Furthermore, getting everything in a selection to have the correct average center point seems like more work than aligning all of the object manually.
Perhaps the Illustrator alignment tools are meant to be a 2-step process: (1) align selections on center then (2) move them to where you want them. That being said, the Horizontal/Vertical Align Center seem to be the only 2 buttons that use the center points of selected object rather than the outside edges.
In InDesign, Horiztonal/Vertical Align Center aligns selections to the center point between the outside edges of a selection group. Whereas in Illustrator, Horizontal/Vertical Align Center seems to average the center points of the selection group. Having used both, it seems like the InDesign functionality is more intuitive: Position the widest/tallest object where you want it to be, then align everything else to it.
Maybe it's just me, but I've never needed/wanted Illustrator to align a bunch of selections to their average center point. Furthermore, getting everything in a selection to have the correct average center point seems like more work than aligning all of the object manually.
Perhaps the Illustrator alignment tools are meant to be a 2-step process: (1) align selections on center then (2) move them to where you want them. That being said, the Horizontal/Vertical Align Center seem to be the only 2 buttons that use the center points of selected object rather than the outside edges.