MS Office - grouping images

[Tim]

I am trying to group images in word. I used to be able to do this in the
previous versions of word, but in 2007 I am unable to choose more than one
image.

I am using the Office 2007 version.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

You can't group an object that is formatted as inline with text.

In Word 2007, if you insert everything into a Drawing Canvas, you can
group everything together, drag the grouped object off the Drawing
Canvas to the desired position on the page, and delete the Drawing Canvas.

In Word 2007, if you save the document as a Word 97-2003 .doc file, then
the grouping feature might work more like you're thinking it should.

 

[Beach Lover]

I have tried this and it works for everything EXCEPT pasted images
(screenshots). When creating instructional documents, screenshots are very
important. This seems like a step backward that I must save a Word 2007
document in 2003 format in order to do this. Has anyone figured out how to
paste a copied image/images then add text boxes, etc, and then group all
without saving in the 03 format first?

 

[Tony Jollans]

Yes, this does appear to be a problem. I'll see if I can find anything out.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Word 2007, in part, to preserve backwards compatibiility with some features, only implemented a portio of the new graphics engine
(one of the
reasons that Powerpoint 2007 and not Word is the one with new "WordArt" <g>).

With that implementation came the problem of not being able to combine old
/legacy engine powered graphics with the
control wrapped/new engine graphics from the User Interface. If you copy an Insert=>Picture item to the clipboard in Word 2007 and
then check the clipboard in Home=>Paste=>Paste Special the picture defaults to
'Microsoft Office Graphic Object'. That's the new engined graphic. If you do that in Word 2003 or in Word 2007 in compatibility
mode, it's either HTML Format or 'Microsoft Office Drawing Object' (old engined)

If you save the document as Word 97-2003 document then the graphics all behave like the old ones for the purposes of grouping,
annotating if you prefer not to use the Canvas.

If you use the drawing canvas (Insert=>Shape=>New Drawing, then everything within the canvas is a group.

You can also stay in the .docx format and add the 'dissasemble picture' choice to the quick access toolbar, then apply that it to an
inserted picture to change it's behavior to that of a previous version graphic for purposes of grouping. Be careful with this one
though. On a bitmapped graphic (JPG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, BMP, etc) things should stay in one piece, but in graphics such as EMF or WMF
be sure to regroup the disassembled graphic back to a single item.

If you save as Word 97-2003 document, then once your items are grouped you can use Office Button=>Convert to go back to Word 2007
behavior when adding additional graphics.

============
<<"Tony Jollans" <My forename at my surname dot com> wrote in message Yes, this does appear to be a problem. I'll see if I can find anything out.

--
Enjoy,
Tony <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Tony Jollans]

Thanks for that, Bob.

I am not a graphics person - and Word is not a graphics program - but it
seems to me there are a couple of serious limitations with the current
setup:

* AFAICT, you can't paste into a drawing canvas
* Saving in .doc format has several effects, some non-reversible, and
some of which you are not informed about

Let's hope it is better in the next release.