Best Practices for PowerPoint: Grouping
What is Grouping?
Grouping is when several images are selected and connected to create a single image. Sometimes you may have a slide that includes several different image pieces. An example of this could be the creation of a visual flowchart. Arrows, boxes, and graphics may be individual images placed in a manner to give the appearance of one full image. The Accessibility Wizard will prompt for a description of each image. By grouping the multiple images, the Wizard will prompt for a description of the one image instead of descriptions for each individual image on the page.
Best Practice Advantage
By grouping multiple images or objects that make up a larger image or object, you can move or resize them as a single entity rather than manipulating their individual components. This allows placement between objects to be maintained when resized or moved. When the Wizard converts the presentation, it will prompt for a single description of the grouped object rather than prompting for a description of each part. The image below shows the Text Only View of an exported PowerPoint presentation with the left screenshot being the export with a grouped object and the right screenshot being the export with the same object ungrouped. Notice how the grouped object renders one label for the grouped image and the ungrouped objects have labels for each individual image.
Combining Objects through Grouping:
You will want to make sure that the Drawing Toolbar is active, since this is where the grouping option is located. To activate the Drawing Toolbar, go to VIEW on the main top menu and select TOOLBARS. (If you do not see the TOOLBARS choice, the menu may be compressed. Select the arrow located at the bottom of the menu. This will cause the menu to expand and show all choices available.) Select DRAWING from the submenu. The Drawing Toolbar will now appear on your screen.
Select the objects you will group by selecting the first object, hold down the shift key, and then select the remaining objects. You will know an object is selected by the dotted box appearing around it. After you have selected all the objects to be grouped, select DRAW on the Drawing Toolbar to bring up the options menu. Select GROUP to group your objects together. (If you do not see the GROUP choice, the menu may be compressed. Select the arrow located at the bottom of the menu. This will cause the menu to expand and show all choices available.) The group of images is now combined into one image. You should see only one dotted boundary box instead of one for each of the items in the group.
The Accessibility Wizard now recognizes the multiple objects as one image. To ungroup items, select the object that has been grouped, select DRAW on the Drawing Toolbar to bring up the options menu. Select UNGROUP to group your objects together. (If you do not see the UNGROUP choice, the menu may be compressed. Select the arrow located at the bottom of the menu. This will cause the menu to expand and show all choices available.) The group and ungroup choices are also available by right clicking on objects after selecting. If you ungroup objects to edit them, be sure to group them again before running the Accessibility Wizard.