So in short, grouped shapes (a group), can:
| · | Move All sub shapes move with it)
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| · | Resize All subshapes are resized as well, in a controllable manner. By default, the subshapes are stretched proportionally to the parent, but you can change this behaviour to your wishes by setting the anchors. Please review the Editing Anchors topic for that.
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| · | Rotate All subshapes rotate with the group.
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| · | Alpha blend The group has its own Master Alpha so you can integrally change the transparency of the whole group (of course you can also still set the subshape's transparency individually).
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| · | Copy/Cut/Paste Once you have created a group, you can easily copy and paste it to create multiple copies in your document.
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| · | Set Aspect The group's aspect ratio can be fixed, or be left free. If fixed, whenever you resize the group the aspect ratio of how it was when fixed will be preserved.
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| · | Group Yes, you can group any shape, so also a group (since it is a descendant of the original shape)! There is no limit to the number of levels deep that you want to group.
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| · | Ungroup You can ungroup any group again, and the individual subshapes will be put in their new location. It is often convenient to temporarily group a number of shapes, then move them around or rotate them, and then finally ungrouping them again so you can edit their individual properties.
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Grouping Example
Here is an example, that demonstrates above.
We will first group these shapes. To do so, all shapes must be selected. Use [Shift]-click or drag a rectangle around the shape (see also Multiple Selections):
Now click the group icon on the toolbar. The selection rectangle and handles will be positioned around the group, and the individual shapes are no longer selectable.
You can now drag this new shape around and do anything to it that you would also do to any shape descendant. Let's rotate it here.
We can also create a copies, and add some effects to it, e.g. a shadow:
Now, we will ungroup this group again, and we will have the individual shapes restored so we can edit them individually. Note that effects do not get transferred to the individual shapes, but their new positions are kept:
Here we can edit the individual shapes again. For instance the colors:
