Video: Ungroup and regroup shapes or pictures

If you grouped shapes or pictures and, later, need to change or rearrange items in the group, it is sometimes easiest to ungroup items and then regroup.

Ungroup shapes, pictures, or other objects

You might want to move a group, but leave one shape or picture behind, or make extensive changes to one shape without changing the other shapes in the group.

1. Select the group that you want to ungroup.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To ungroup shapes and objects, on the DRAWING TOOLS FORMAT tab, click Group > Ungroup.

     

   • To ungroup pictures, on the PICTURE TOOLS FORMAT tab, click Group > Ungroup.

     

For all apps except Word

1. Select any one of the shapes, pictures, or objects that were previously in a group.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To regroup shapes and objects, on the DRAWING TOOLS FORMAT tab, click Group > Regroup.

     

   • To regroup pictures, on the PICTURE TOOLS FORMAT tab, click Group > Regroup.

     

If you have grouped shapes or pictures and, later, need to change or rearrange items in the group, it is sometimes easiest to ungroup items and then regroup.

For example, I grouped these rectangles, and now, I need to add a fourth rectangle and reposition the shapes.

So, I’ll right-click one of the rectangles, point to Group, and click Ungroup.

Note that this ungroups the rectangles — each one now has its own selection box — but it doesn’t ungroup the text from its rectangle.

That’s because, before I grouped the rectangles, I grouped each rectangle with its text box. Those sub-groupings are intact, even though I ungrouped the rectangles.

Now, I need to reposition the rectangles.

I’ll drag Shape 2 up to the right corner.

The drawing guides help me align it with the other shapes.

And, I need a fourth shape, so, next, I’ll click Rectangle 3, and press Ctrl+D to duplicate the shape.

Then, I’ll drag the new shape over to the bottom-left corner.

For the shape on the bottom-right, I’ll select the text box, select the text, and type 4.

Now, to group the rectangles again, I’ll first drag to select them all. Then I’ll right-click a selected shape, point to Group, and click Group.

Our group of shapes is once more intact.

For more information, see the course summary, and experiment some more with PowerPoint.