Group, Ungroup, and Regroup Shapes in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Many times, you want to animate several slide objects together, or you may want to rotate all shapes together to a certain angle. At times like these, you'll be happy to know that grouping, ungrouping, and regrouping shapes is possible in PowerPoint, and here are definitions of these terms:

Grouping: Make a single selection from a disparate or similar set of slide objects, so that when you select it again, you end up selecting the entire group rather than a single object. A group has a single set of selection and rotation handles (compare the individual elements on the left of Figure 1 to the unified, single group on the right).

Figure 1: Individual shapes (left) and the same shapes within a group (right)

Ungrouping: Lets you break up a grouped object back into individual objects. If we were to ungroup the object to the right of Figure 1 (see above), it would result in looking as shown towards the left of the same Figure 1.

Regrouping: Sometimes, you need to ungroup an object just so that you can make one small change to a particular slide object. Regrouping remembers whatever comprised the original group, and reconstitutes the original group without you having to select all individual slide objects all over again.

Grouping Shapes

Follow these steps to group shapes (or any other slide objects) in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. Select the shapes you want to group.
2. Right click the selection carefully, and choose Group | Group from the resultant menu, as shown in Figure 2. You can also group shapes by pressing the Ctrl + G shortcut key. In addition, you'll also find the Group option on the Home tab of the Ribbon. Click the Arrange button to bring up a gallery that contains the Group option.
3. 
   Figure 2: Grouping shapes and/or slide objects
4. Once the shapes are grouped, you can change the attributes for them as a single grouped entity as required. For example, if you rotate an entire group, all individual objects in that group will rotate together as a single object. Look at Figure 3, where you can see individual shapes rotated 15 degrees each (look at unrotated stage in Figure 1). Compare this with the group on the right which was also rotated by 15 degrees, you'll see that the rotation on the right looks much better.
5. 
   Figure 3: Rotation of 15 degrees applied to individual shapes (on the left) and a group (on the right)

Ungrouping Shapes

Follow these steps to ungroup previously grouped shapes and/or other slide objects in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. Select the group you want to ungroup, and right click carefully to get the resultant menu shown in Figure 4, then choose Group | Ungroup. You can also ungroup shapes by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + G shortcut key. In addition, you'll also find the Ungroup option on the Home tab of the Ribbon. Click the Arrange button to bring up a gallery that contains the Ungroup option.
2. 
   Figure 4: Ungroup your existing groups

Regrouping Shapes

Follow these steps to regroup (reconstitute) any hitherto ungrouped group:

1. Select any one of the shapes within a previous group, right click carefully and choose Group | Regroup from the resultant menu, as shown in Figure 5. In addition, you'll also find the Regroup option on the Home tab of the Ribbon. Click the Arrange button to bring up a gallery that contains the Regroup option.
2. 
   Figure 5: Regroup to reconstitute your ungrouped group
Tip: Are the Ungroup and Regroup options grayed out? Remember, Ungroup is only available when the selected object is a group. Similarly, Regroup is only available as an option if any selected shape or slide object was part of a previously constituted group.
2. Save your presentation often.