Scale grouped objects with preserving font size

Question

Hallo!
  I wonder whether this is possible. I would like to have two objects grouped - a square and a text, let's say at the top left corner within the square. Now i would like to "lock" the font size to 12pt. Whenever I scale and move the square, the font size remains at 12pt and is located at the top left corner within the square. Can I do this?
Thanks,
  Ralph

Answer 1

ALWAYS state WHAT VERSION of Illustrator you are using.
Illustrator still does not provide any kind of dynamic object-connection features (connector lines, callouts, dimensions, etc.) like most decent drawing programs have for many years.
If the rectangle and text were truly all you wanted, you could do that by simply making the text object a so-called AreaType object, and giving its frame path the stroke/fill desired. You could then simply set the AreaType Options to control placement of the text inside its frame path and scale the object at will by its bounding box handles.
But I assume you really want more than that: You want the text object to be contained within any arbitrary multi-object group, and be able to scale the group without also scaling the text, yet retain the text object's alignment relative to a corner of the rest of the group. You could devise an awkward workaround for that, using so-called Isolation Mode. The following assumes a version recent enough to have Isolation Mode:
1. Assume a Group containing a Rectangle, a triangle, and a text object. The Rectangle's bounds define the Group's bounds at the corner to which you want to maintain relative positioning of the text object when scaling the Group.
1. DoubleClick the Group to put it in Isolation Mode.
2. Select All. Deselect the text object.
3. Group. Send to Back. Now you have a Group nested inside another Group. The outer Group contains the inner Group and the textFrame. The textFrame is not part of the inner Group.
4. DoubleClick outside the artwork to exit Isolation Mode.
5. Now assume you want to scale everything other than the text, and you want to maintain the position of the text relative to the upper-left corner.
6. DoubleClick the Group to put it in Isolation Mode.
7. Scale the inner Group by dragging (or ShiftDragging) its lower right bounding box handle.
8. DoubleClick outside the artwork to exit Isolation Mode.
In pre-Isolation Mode versions, the same thing can be done by using the cumbersome Group Selection Tool to "drill up" to the inner group's level.
JET