How to Group Items in Google Drawings
You see, if you do not group all the elements you used in your drawing, you may accidentally move an element. And if you do that, you'll spend the next two minutes making sure everything is aligned properly. Another problem that you may face if you do not combine all the elements is that you will have trouble resizing or duplicating your project once it is done.
That's why I strongly recommend you to group all the items once your project is done. If you do not know how to do this, then you are in the right place. Keep reading to find out.
How to group elements in Google Drawings
Grouping items in Google Drawings is a pretty simple process. For this article, I will use this simple flowchart as an example.
Now, to group all the shapes and lines of this flowchart, you need to follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Move the cursor over an empty part of the canvas, left-click, and drag to create a selection around your drawing.
2nd step: Then click the Arrange option in the top toolbar to open the drop-down menu.
Step 3: Click the Group option in the menu to associate all the selected items.
And with that, all the elements of your drawing will be grouped together. Now, when you click an item, the entire drawing is selected and you can easily resize, flip, rotate, and even align from the Arrange menu.
To resize your drawing, simply move your cursor to one of the corners until its shape changes. Then click with the left mouse button and drag it in or out to enlarge or enlarge the drawing. Simple, is not it?
You must now know if you are grouping items in Google Drawings. Once grouped, the platform does not allow you to make major changes to your drawing. So, if you want to add other elements to your diagram, you must first ungroup them. Just follow these simple steps to ungroup elements in Google Drawings:
Step 1: Click the grouped item to select it.
2nd step: Then click the Arrange option in the top toolbar to open the drop-down menu.
Step 3: Click Unlink in the menu and you are done.
You will now be able to easily add or remove items in your drawing. However, if you just want to make minor changes to a particular item in a group. You can double-click the item to select it, and then make the required changes. But this method will not allow you to add or remove items from a group.
Once you have mastered the process, you can also use keyboard shortcuts to quickly group and ungroup objects in Google Drawings. To group elements, you can use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + G after selecting the elements, as previously indicated. And to ungroup elements, you can use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Shift + G.
You can also use the right-click context menu to group or ungroup items. Just select the items you want to group, right-click anywhere in the selection, and then click Group on the shortcut menu. To ungroup, simply click the grouped item to select it, right-click anywhere in the selection, and click Ungroup on the shortcut menu. Is not it practical?
And the best part of Google Drawings is that there is no need to group all the elements of your drawing. This means that you can have multiple groups in a project and this allows you to easily make minor adjustments on the fly. The process of creating multiple different groups remains exactly the same.
Use bundled items to your advantage
Now that you know how to group objects in Google Drawings, you can use this feature to create more complex projects without worrying about accidentally moving or resizing an element. The feature also allows you to easily rotate, flip, move or resize all shapes or all elements at the same time, as it 's only one element. Just be sure to ungroup the elements before making major changes to the project. After that, you can always add the group elements diagram in Google Docs to make your file stand out.
Then: Want to make an element of your drawing transparent? Check out the next article to learn how to change transparency in Google Drawings.