Grouping Shapes Together

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Impress Guide

Chapter 5: Managing Graphic Objects

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• Introduction
• Creating Lines and Shapes
• Grouping Shapes Together
• Moving Graphic Objects
• Resizing Graphic Objects
• Applying Special Effects
  • Rotating Graphic Objects
  • Flip an Object
  • Mirror Copies
  • Distorting an Image
    • Distort an Object
    • Set in Circle (Perspective)
    • Set in Circle (Slant)
• Aligning Shapes
• Snapping Objects to Grid or Snap Guides
  • Using the Grid
  • Using Snap Guides
• Arranging Shapes
• Working with Connectors
  • Managing Glue Points
• Working with 3D Shapes
• Converting an Object to a Different Type
• Setting up Interaction with a Shape
• Animating Images
  • Creating an Animation
    • Frame-by-Frame Animation
    • Animated Image in One Step
  • Other functions of the Animator
• Using Fontwork
  • Using the Fontwork Toolbar
  • Modifying Fontwork Text as a Shape

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Grouping Shapes Together

It is often convenient to group shapes together to cause Impress to treat them as a single shape. A group of shapes can be formatted as if it were a single shape, moved, rotated, deleted, and so on. To group shapes together, do as follows:

1. Select the shapes to be grouped. To do this, use the selection tool on the drawing toolbar and draw a rectangle around the shapes to be grouped, or click on each shape to be added to the group while pressing the  ⇧ Shift  key.
2. When the green resizing handles show, select Format → Group → Group or press  Control  +  ⇧ Shift  +  G  on the keyboard.

Once the group is defined, click on any of the shapes within the group to select it. To edit only the shapes in the group, press  F3  when the group is selected or select Format → Group → Enter group from the menu bar. Notice that any shapes not part of the group are grayed out and that only the shapes belonging to the group can be edited. Use this function when you need to apply a particular format to a single member of the group. To exit from group mode, press  Control  +  F3  or select Format → Group → Group from the menu bar.

For more about working with grouped objects, see Chapter 5 (Combining Multiple Objects) in the Draw Guide.

To ungroup objects:

1. Select the group of shapes.
2. When the green resizing handles show, select Format → Group → Ungroup from the menu bar.

If you use the group and ungroup commands often, consider adding them to one of the toolbars shown by default, so that the commands are readily available. To do so, you will need to customize the selected toolbar. See Chapter 11 (Setting Up and Customizing Impress).