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Group objects

A drawing, such as a piece of clip art, is often made up of individual shapes that are grouped together to create a cohesive whole. By grouping objects, you can move and resize the objects as a unit.

To group objects, you first have to select the objects. Remember you can do that by doing one of the following:

  • Select the first object then hold the Shift key while you select additional objects.
  • Drag a selection "lasso" around the objects.

Then, do one of the following:

  • Right-click one of the selected objects and choose Group.
  • Click the Draw menu on the Drawing toolbar and choose Group.

Once objects are grouped, any command you perform on the group affects all of the objects in that group. There may come a time, however, when you want to change only one of the objects in the group. To do that, you must first ungroup the grouped objects.

  • Right-click the group and choose Ungroup.
  • Click the Draw menu on the Drawing toolbar and choose Ungroup.

After making your change, you can regroup the objects. The objects "remember" what they were grouped with, so you can easily reassemble the group.

  • Right-click any member of the original group and choose Regroup.
  • Click the Draw menu on the Drawing toolbar and choose Regroup.

You can make many changes to one object within a group without ungrouping and later regrouping. Select the object with two single clicks. That is, click the object, then move your mouse or wait a few seconds, then click the object again. You will see that it is selected "within" the group and you can make your change.

Not every change can be made this way, but most can. If a change accidentally affects the entire group, choose the Undo command then ungroup the grouped objects, make your change, and regroup.

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