Group Objects

Previous chapters have referred to grouping and explained how to group objects to perform various techniques. Here we ll look at grouping in a little more detail.

To group objects, first select them using a selection tool (such as the Selection tool or the Lasso tool). Then choose Object Group. Once objects are grouped, you can select the entire group by clicking within it with the Selection tool. With the entire set of grouped objects selected, you apply fill or stroke changes to the entire group.

Shortcut

The keyboard shortcut for grouping is command - g ( ctrl-g ). An alternate way to select several objects is to hold down shift while clicking with the Selection tool.

In a similar way, transforming tools such as the Scale, Rotation, and Free Transform tools work on a group of objects as if the group was a single object. If you want to change just one object within a group, you can ungroup the objects and then select an individual object within the group.

Tip	Grouping, ungrouping, and regrouping can get tedious . If you want to quickly select an object within a group, remember to use the Group Selection tool found in the Selection tool tearoff.

To more-or-less permanently ungroup a set of objects, select the group and choose Object Ungroup (or use the shortcut keys COMMAND-SHIFT-G [ CTRL - SHIFT-G] ). Groups can themselves be grouped again. However, if you re going to get into multiple levels of grouping, you ll probably be better served by organizing sets of objects into more powerful layers. You ll learn to use layers in Chapter 20.

Tip	Each level of grouping has to be ungrouped in turn . So if you've grouped a group within a group, you'll have to choose Object Ungroup more than once to ungroup all the objects.