How to Group Objects Without Losing Animation in PowerPoint?

Have you ever wanted to group objects in PowerPoint without losing their individual animations? Grouping shapes, images, and other elements together is a great way to keep your slide organized and make global edits. However, by default, PowerPoint removes any animations applied to individual objects when you group them.

Luckily, there’s an easy workaround to preserve animations when grouping in PowerPoint. In this article, you’ll learn step-by-step how to group objects while keeping their animations intact.

What Happens When You Group Animated Objects in PowerPoint?

When you select multiple objects on a PowerPoint slide and group them together, you’ll notice that any animations you had applied to the individual shapes disappear. PowerPoint essentially treats the newly formed group as a single object and strips out the individual object animations. This can be frustrating if you’ve already spent time carefully animating each element on the slide.

Some common scenarios where you might want to group animated objects include:

• Moving or resizing multiple related shapes while preserving their animations
• Applying a single animation to a group of objects that are already individually animated
• Organizing a complex slide layout without losing object animations
• Creating reusable animated assets that you can copy/paste across slides

Why Animations Disappear After Grouping

PowerPoint’s default behavior is to remove individual animations when objects are grouped together. This is because the software sees the group as a new single entity, rather than a collection of pre-animated shapes. While this simplifies the overall animation timeline, it can disrupt carefully crafted sequences and effects.

Understanding how PowerPoint handles object grouping is key to avoiding lost animations. Some important things to note:

• Grouping removes animations from individual objects, but not from the group as a whole
• Ungrouping a previously animated group does not restore the original object animations
• Copying/pasting a group also strips out individual animations
• Animation Painter is the best tool for preserving object animations before grouping

Step-by-Step: How to Group Objects Without Losing Animations

Here’s the simple trick to group objects in PowerPoint without losing animations:

1. Select the objects you want to group
2. Navigate to the Animations tab
3. Click “Animation Painter”
4. Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click each object again to apply the Animation Painter
5. With the objects still selected, right-click and choose “Group”

That’s it! You’ve now grouped the objects while preserving their original animations.

Let’s walk through each step in more detail:

Step 1: Select the Objects

Click and drag your mouse to select all the objects you want to group together. You can also hold Shift and click each object individually to add it to the selection.

Tip: If you have many overlapping objects, it can be tricky to select them all with the mouse. Instead, use the Selection Pane (Home > Editing > Select > Selection Pane) to select objects by name.

Step 2: Go to Animations Tab

Click on the Animations tab in the PowerPoint ribbon. This is where you’ll find the Animation Painter tool.

Note: The Animations tab may be hidden if you have a smaller screen or lower resolution. Click on the “More” arrow at the end of the ribbon tabs to see all available options.

Step 3: Click Animation Painter

The Animation Painter button looks like a paintbrush. Clicking it once will copy the animations from the first clicked object.

If you don’t see Animation Painter in the Animations tab, you may need to add it to the Quick Access Toolbar. Right-click the ribbon, choose “Customize Quick Access Toolbar”, and select Animation Painter from the list of commands.

Step 4: Hold Ctrl/Cmd and Re-Select Objects

While holding the Ctrl key (Cmd on Mac), click again on each object that you previously selected. This will apply the copied animations back onto those objects using the Animation Painter.

Note: The Ctrl/Cmd key is essential here – if you don’t hold it down, you’ll lose the original object selection.

Tip: You can also use the Animation Painter to copy animations from one group to another. Just select the animated group, click Animation Painter, then click on the target group while holding Ctrl/Cmd.

Step 5: Group the Objects

With the animated objects still selected, right-click and choose “Group” from the popup menu. PowerPoint will group the objects together while preserving the individual animations you reapplied in Step 4.

If the Group option is grayed out, double-check that multiple objects are selected and that they are all the same object type (e.g. all shapes, all pictures, etc.). You cannot group different types of objects together.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Grouping Objects

To speed up the grouping process, you can use these handy keyboard shortcuts:

Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly enhance your productivity in PowerPoint, especially when working with complex animated slides. Practice these shortcuts until they become second nature.

Tips for Grouping Animated Objects

Here are a few best practices and things to keep in mind when grouping objects with animations:

• Ungroup carefully: If you ungroup objects and then regroup them later, you’ll need to reapply the animations again using the steps above. Ungrouping erases object animations.
• Name groups: When working with many grouped elements, it’s helpful to give each group a descriptive name. Select the group, then navigate to the Selection Pane and double-click the group name to edit it.
• Animate groups: You can apply animations to the group as a whole in addition to the individual object animations. Just click on the grouped element and add animations from the Animations tab as usual.
• Copy/paste animations: The Animation Painter works across slides and even presentations. You can copy animations from one group and paste them onto another.
• Use slide masters: For repeatable animated layouts, consider building them on the slide master instead of individual slides. Slide master animations are preserved even when ungrouping.

Preserving Animations for Morph Transitions

The Morph transition is a newer PowerPoint feature that seamlessly animates and moves objects between slides. If you want to use morph transitions on grouped objects while preserving individual animations, follow these steps:

1. Duplicate the slide with the animated group
2. On the second slide, ungroup the objects
3. Make the desired changes to object position/size
4. Regroup the objects on the second slide
5. Apply the Morph transition

This essentially “fools” PowerPoint into using the Morph transition with a grouped element that has individual animations. Just make sure the object names stay consistent between slides.

Note: The Morph transition only works in PowerPoint 2016 and later. If you’re using an earlier version, you’ll need to stick with traditional animations.

Troubleshooting Disappearing Animations

If you’re still having trouble with animations disappearing after grouping, double-check that:

• You held the Ctrl/Cmd key in Step 4 while using the Animation Painter
• The objects remained selected throughout all 5 steps
• You’re using Animation Painter, not the Format Painter or Copy/Paste
• All objects in the group originally had animations applied
• Your PowerPoint version supports the Animation Painter tool

If animations still aren’t preserved after following the steps carefully, try restarting PowerPoint or even your computer. Sometimes a fresh start can resolve glitchy animation behavior.

Final Thoughts

Grouping objects without losing animations in PowerPoint is easier than it seems. By using the Animation Painter in conjunction with the Ctrl/Cmd key, you can preserve object animations and then group elements as needed. This technique is a must-know for anyone building complex animated slides in PowerPoint.

Mastering PowerPoint animations and grouping can take your presentations to the next level. With practice and attention to detail, you’ll be crafting engaging, professional-looking slides in no time. Don’t let lost animations slow you down – keep this article handy and group objects with confidence.

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Trish Dixon

Trish Dixon is the founder of PPTBliss and a PowerPoint expert with over a decade of experience in presentation design. Passionate about visual storytelling, Trish shares her expertise through easy-to-follow tutorials on slide design, animations, transitions, and best practices, helping professionals create impactful presentations across industries.

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