The Snap to Glyph feature lets you snap your artwork components precisely with the text or glyph bounds.
Simply choose a snapping line option and you'll see the guides when you move objects around the text. Follow these guides to snap your objects. You can also drag and snap a shape precisely with the anchor points on the text.

For more details, see Snap objects to glyph.
You can now align the text in vertical direction in a text frame at the top, bottom, center, or justify positions. Simply select the text frame and choose a vertical alignment option in the Area Type text options.

For more details, see Smart ways to align your text.
The Character panel in Illustrator now lets you set the actual font height reference. It is useful when you want to align your objects precisely with the text.
To set the actual font height:
- Select the text frame using the Selection tool.
- Click More Options in the Character panel.
- Choose Show Font Height Options. The Font Height drop-down appears in Character panel.
- Choose a height variation option in the Font Height drop-down.

For more details, see Vary your font height.
You can now align objects precisely with the visual glyph bounds.
- In the Align panel, click More Options and choose Align to Glyph Bounds for Point Text and/or Area Text.
- Select the object and the text using the Selection tool or press Ctrl or Command+A.
- Choose an alignment option in the Align panel. The object will be aligned with respect to the glyph bounds.

For more details, see Align to glyph bounds.
Now, you can unlock objects directly from the canvas without the need to go to the Layers panel. Do one of the following:
- Using the lock icon: To enable this feature, set Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display > Select and Unlock Objects on Canvas. A lock icon is displayed on the canvas for lock objects. Click this icon to unlock objects.
- Right-click the locked object and choose Unlock > object-name.

For more details, see Unlock objects from canvas.