Group shapes together

1. Group shapes together Suppose you’ve made a map. You’ve got several buildings clustered together. It looks perfect. But oops… The cluster of buildings is on the wrong street. You need to move all the buildings down one block. You could select each one and move it down separately. But does that sound efficient? With Visio, you can group the buildings so that the cluster stays bound together, and you move them all at once. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

2. Select, then group The first step in grouping shapes is to select the shapes. You can do this by holding down the SHIFT key while clicking them or by dragging a selection net around them. When you’ve got the shapes selected, on the Shape menu, click Grouping and then click Group. That’s it: The shapes are now grouped. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

3. Select, then group The first step in grouping shapes is to select the shapes. You can do anything to a group of shapes that you can do to a shape: resize it, rotate it, align it with others, and so on. Visio treats a group as one big 2-D shape. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

4. Change just one shape within a group Even after you’ve grouped shapes, you can still edit just one of the shapes in the group. Let’s use our cluster of buildings as an example. If three buildings are grouped together as one, how do you hone in on one of the buildings to resize it a little? Or maybe you want to change its color. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

5. Change just one shape within a group Even after you’ve grouped shapes, you can still edit just one of the shapes in the group. The picture illustrates how simple it is. Click the group to select it. Click again to select a shape within the group. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

6. Change just one shape within a group When one shape is selected, it appears with green handles, but these handles have Xs in them. This is a signal that the shape you selected is a part of a group. Now you can change that one shape any way you like. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

7. Ungroup shapes Sometimes you need to ungroup a group of shapes. For example, you may want to move the group but leave one building behind or make extensive changes to a single shape. The process is simple: • Select the shape. • On the Shape menu, point to Grouping, and then click Ungroup. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes

8. Shapes that are grouped from the start You might have worked with grouped shapes without knowing it; many of the shapes in Visio are actually grouped already. This makes them easier to work with. This factory shape is a perfect example. Here’s what the factory shape looks like when you put it on the page. But if you ungroup it, you’ll find it is actually a group of several component shapes. Expertly position, stack, and group shapes