Grouping and Ungrouping Objects

Excel provides a feature found in many graphics programs--the ability to group graphics objects. For instance, you can spend a great deal of time positioning graphics objects in just the right position in order to achieve a desired effect. It is not unusual to create compound objects that are comprised of dozens of smaller objects.

Rather than risk getting the objects out of order or having their positions changed, you can group them so that they are treated as a single object. This is done by selecting all the objects you want grouped together (hold down the Shift key as you select each object).

Finally, choose the Group option which is available from the menu visible when you click on Draw on the Drawing toolbar (or, if you are using Excel 2007, right-click one of the images in the group and choose Group | Group). Notice that the individual handles for each object disappear, and instead, handles appear around a rectangle that encompasses all the objects in the group.

If you later want to ungroup the objects, simply choose the object you want to ungroup and choose Ungroup from the Draw menu or right-click the group and choose Group | Ungroup.