PowerPoint 2013 For Dummies
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A group is a collection of objects that PowerPoint 2013 treats as though they were one object. Using groups properly is one key to putting simple shapes together to make complex pictures without becoming so frustrated that you have to join a therapy group. (“Hello, my name is Doug, and PowerPoint drives me crazy.”)

To create a group, follow these steps:

  1. Choose all objects that you want to include in the group.

    You can do this by holding down the Shift key and clicking each of the items or by clicking and dragging the resulting rectangle around all the items.

  2. Right-click one of the selected objects and then choose Group→Group from the menu that appears.

You can also find the Group command on the Drawing Tools tab, but it’s much easier to find by right-clicking.

To take a group apart so that PowerPoint treats the objects as individuals again, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click the group you want to break up.

  2. Choose Group→Ungroup.

If you create a group and then ungroup it so that you can work on its elements individually, you can easily regroup the objects. These steps show you how:

  1. Right-click one of the objects that was in the original group.

  2. Choose Group→Regroup.

    PowerPoint remembers which objects were in the group and automatically includes them.

PowerPoint enables you to create groups of groups. This capability is useful for complex pictures because it enables you to work on one part of the picture, group it, and then work on the next part of the picture without worrying about accidentally disturbing the part that you’ve already grouped.

After you have several such groups, select them and group them. You can create groups of groups of groups and so on, ad nauseam.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Doug Lowe is the bestselling author of more than 40 For Dummies books. He's covered everything from Microsoft Office to creating web pages to technologies such as Java and ASP.NET, and has written several editions of both PowerPoint For Dummies and Networking For Dummies.

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