Page 570 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

552 Graphic Objects 101
Excel indicates that the selected graphics are now grouped in the worksheet (and for all intents and purposes, are a single graphic object) by placing a single set of sizing handles around the perimeter formed by all the former separate graphics and by giving them a group number in the Selection task pane. You can then manipulate the grouped graphic as a single entity by moving it, sizing it, rotating it, and so forth, as you would any other object.
The great thing about grouping a bunch of different objects is that Excel never forgets that they were once separate objects that you could indepen- dently manipulate. This means that you can always turn them back into separate graphics by ungrouping them. To do this, right-click the composite graphic object and then choose Group➪Ungroup from its shortcut menu
or choose the Ungroup option from the Group Objects command button’s drop-down menu on the object’s particular Tools Format tab.
Excel shows that the composite object is once again separated into many dif- ferent objects by displaying sizing handles around each object’s perimeter. You can then deselect them all and manipulate each one once again inde- pendently by selecting it alone before moving, resizing, or rotating it. If you decide that you want the now- independent objects to be joined as a group once again, you can do this by right-clicking any one of the graphics in the erstwhile group and then choosing Group➪Regroup from its shortcut menu or choosing the Regroup option from the Group Objects command button’s drop-down menu’s Format contextual tab.
Figure 2-4 illustrates grouping in action. For this figure, I selected both
the triangle and star graphics below and then chose Group from the
Group Objects button’s drop-down menu. As you can see, in grouping the two objects together into one, Excel created a new Group 5 object in the Selection task pane that consists of Right Arrow 2 and 5-Point Star 3. After grouping the two graphics, not only will the triangle move whenever I reposi- tion the star, but the triangle will also resize when I modify the shape, and it would rotate together with the star if I were to turn the star on its head.
Managing graphic objects in the Selection task pane
As previously discussed in the “Moving graphic objects to new layers” section earlier in this chapter, the Selection task pane that you display by clicking
the Selection Pane button on the Format tab of the Chart, Drawing, or Picture Tools contextual tab on the Ribbon makes it easy to move graphic objects that overlap one another in some manner to different layers in the stack.