Grouping Objects in PowerPoint 2016

During this Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 training tutorial video, you will learn how to group objects so that it is much easier to move multiple objects around. You will also learn how to ungroup objects in case you prefer that they function individually.

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Okay, so we’re getting ready to wrap up module six where we’re talking about formatting our objects. And this is going to be section five where I’m going to show you how to group objects.

Okay so we’re back on slide four and we’ve got these objects here that we lined up previously. And we can certainly leave them this way but a lot of times it’s easier to work with objects if they’re grouped together. So I’m going to go ahead and select all five of these objects and what I’m going to do is I’m going to go back to Arrange and then you’ll see Group.

And if I group these together they’re now one object. So I can move this one object anywhere I want. And notice that they don’t come apart because it’s all one object. Now if I want to ungroup them I just go back to Arrange and now Ungroup is available.

Now you don’t have to group objects that are lined up. They can be totally nowhere near each other in order to group them. So let me show you what I mean by this.

Let’s say that I add a couple things to this particular slide here. Let’s say that I go ahead and put in this number twelve like this and then let’s also go ahead and add, I’ll just put this sixteen point star up here. So if you notice these two objects are nowhere near each other.

But if I select both of them and do the same thing, I can go back to Arrange and I can choose Group. Now these are one object. See how if I move one they both move because it’s one object. Now let me ungroup those.

Now here’s a better example. Let’s say I have something like this. I want to go ahead and draw a star and I want to put a little one down here like this and let’s say I change this a little bit and I put one over here exactly like it.

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Now I probably want to line them up but if I wanted to group them I just select them both, go back to Arrange and group. And now they’re one object. So if I wanted to move them to the top for some reason it’s easier to do because they’re just one object.

So just remember that you have the ability to group or ungroup objects like this. Now let me give you another example.

I’m going to go ahead and ungroup these. So I’m going back to Arrange and I’ll ungroup. Now let me go ahead and move one of these up to the top like this. Do you remember how we talked about duplicating in a previous section? You’re just going to hold the Control key and hit D for duplicate several times.

Well I’ve got this neat little cascading effect with these stars now and that’s kind of neat but I’d like to line them up across let’s say. So in order to do that I’m going to have to select all of them. Now that they’re selected I can change them so they line up across or up and down.

I’m going to go back to Arrange and if I go down to Align I’m actually going to align these, I’ll align center because they’re going up and down. So see that?

They’re nice and aligned up and down. The problem is they’re still multiple objects. So if I wanted to move this whole set of stars over to the right I’d have to select them all first. Notice now if I go ahead and select them and then group them they’re one object.

So I can move that one object over here if I’d like or I can move it down here if I’d like, whatever I’d like to do with it. It’s one object.

I could even rotate it if I want and then it’ll look like this. Maybe I could rotate it like this. So it’s very easy to group and ungroup objects. Just remember you can do that and it makes it a whole lot easier to work with objects.

So that’s going to wrap up module six here. Let’s go ahead and go over into the exercise. I’ve got a few things I want you to do here and then we’ll go over to module seven.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!