How to Group Objects in PowerPoint (Move Several Things as One)
Built a diagram from six shapes and three labels, and now you want to move it to the right? Without grouping you'll drag nine things and one will get left behind. Group them and they become a single object that moves, resizes and copies as one.
Quick reference
| What you want | How |
|---|---|
| Group | Select the objects → Ctrl + G |
| Ungroup | Select the group → Ctrl + Shift + G |
| Regroup after ungrouping | Select one of the objects → Shape Format → Group → Regroup |
| Edit one item inside a group | Click the group, then click the item again |
| Select everything on the slide | Ctrl + A |
1. Select the objects
• Click the first, then Shift + click (or Ctrl + click) each of the others, or
• Drag a box around them all — only objects completely inside the box are selected, or
• Ctrl + A to select everything on the slide.
• Drag a box around them all — only objects completely inside the box are selected, or
• Ctrl + A to select everything on the slide.
Watch out for the invisible edges of text boxes — they're often bigger than they look.
2. Group them
Press Ctrl + G, or right-click → Group → Group, or Shape Format → Group. One set of handles now surrounds the whole lot.
3. Work with the group
• Move — drag it.
• Resize — drag a corner handle and everything scales together, text included.
• Copy — Ctrl + D duplicates the whole group.
• Animate — the group gets one animation, so a diagram can fly in as a single piece.
• Resize — drag a corner handle and everything scales together, text included.
• Copy — Ctrl + D duplicates the whole group.
• Animate — the group gets one animation, so a diagram can fly in as a single piece.
4. Edit one thing inside the group
Click the group once to select it, then click the item you want. It gets its own handles and you can move, recolour or retype it without ungrouping.
5. Ungroup and regroup
Ctrl + Shift + G ungroups. Make your changes, then select any one of the objects and choose Shape Format → Group → Regroup — PowerPoint remembers which objects belonged together.
6. Groups inside groups
You can group groups. A chart made of three grouped diagrams can itself be grouped. Ungrouping takes one level off at a time.
Troubleshooting
Group is greyed out. Only one thing is selected, or one of the selected items is a placeholder (a title or content box from the layout). Placeholders can't be grouped — copy the text into a normal text box with Insert → Text Box instead.
I can't select the object behind another one. Press Tab to cycle through every object on the slide, or open Home → Select → Selection Pane and click it there.
Ungrouping a picture gives me hundreds of shapes. It's a vector graphic (SVG or EMF). That's useful if you want to recolour part of it; press Ctrl + Z if you don't.
Wrapping up
Select, Ctrl + G. Click into a group to edit one piece, Ctrl + Shift + G to break it apart, Regroup to put it back. Anything you've built from more than one object should probably be a group.
