Microsoft PowerPoint is a well-known presentation program. Due to its popularity, many tutorials, as well as its user-friendly interface, even a novice user will be able to develop a fascinating slide show in this program. In this article, you will learn how to group objects in PowerPoint, how to align them, and how to arrange their position on the page.
Custom shapes created by grouping in MS PowerPoint
During the development of a presentation, a situation may arise when it is necessary to combine several objects into one and work with them as a single object. MS PowerPoint has such a function, and it is called "Grouping". The result is your unique custom shape.
You can rotate the finished object, change its position and arrangement. This is called ordering. Let's consider how alignment and ordering of objects in MS PowerPoint based on version 2007 occurs.
Why is it necessary to group objects?
Before we talk about how to group objects in PowerPoint, we’ll examine why objects are grouped together.
Group objects, as a rule, in one of the following cases:
- The figure you want to get is not among the standard figures of the program. However, when combining several template shapes, you can get what you would like.
- You want to manage several objects, like one: move, flip, flip, resize, and other characteristics at the same time (adjust the overall background color, shape outline, text color and direction, adjust animation, apply effects).
- You want to form an emblem for your company from a set of figures and subsequently use it for various purposes. After all, the figure you created can be saved as a picture for further export to any text or image editor.
MS PowerPoint: grouping of objects. Step-by-step instruction
How to group objects in MS PowerPoint? It is enough to follow the following steps (based on version 2007):
- Create a new blank slide.
- On the "Insert" tab, in the "Illustrations" group, click on the "Shapes" button and draw a few.
- Use the mouse to select all the shapes to be grouped.
- Go to the “Format” tab in the “Arrange” group and find the “Group” button. When you click on it, a menu will open, one of the items of which is the “Group” we need.
Done! You have learned how to group objects in PowerPoint. Now you can copy the resulting shape to any other slide. And to save your figure and further use it, simply right-click on it and click "Save As Picture".
MS PowerPoint: Aligning Grouped Objects
Using Microsoft PowerPoint, grouped objects can be aligned in various ways. Alignment is a change in position relative to the page (slide in this case). To familiarize yourself with all the alignment methods, on the Home tab, again in the Drawing group, find the Arrange button. In the menu that opens, go to the “Align” item:
- “Left” - your figure will move horizontally to the left. Vertically, its position will not change.
- “Center Align” - the figure will move horizontally to the center of the page without moving vertically.
- “Right” - the figure will shift horizontally to the right. Vertically, its position will not change.
- “Align to the top edge” - the figure will shift vertically to the top edge of the sheet. Horizontally, its position will not change.
- “Align in the middle” - the figure will shift vertically to the middle of the sheet, while not changing its position relative to the horizontal.
- "Align to the bottom edge" - the figure will shift vertically to the bottom edge of the sheet. Horizontally, its position will not change.
MS PowerPoint: Organizing Objects
Another advantage of working with grouped objects is the ability to move them uniformly across the layers of the page with a single click.
Left-click to highlight your grouped object.
On the "Home" tab, in the "Drawing" group, go to the "Arrange" menu. You will have 4 options:
- “In the foreground” - by choosing this option, you will place your figure on the very top layer of the slide, it will be placed on top of all other figures and any text.
- “Into the background” - by analogy, your figure will stand behind all the others with which it intersects, as well as the rest of the contents of the slide. Caution! After performing this action, the figure may completely disappear from your field of vision. If this was not intended, just click the Cancel button (or CTRL + Z).
- “Move forward” - the figure will move one layer up. However, it may well not be the highest.
- “Move back” - move the shape one layer back.
As you can see, there’s nothing complicated about how to group objects in PowerPoint. Just a few clicks of the mouse - and we have a unique figure, which is much easier to work with than with disconnected objects.