Favorite Customizing Tips for PowerPoint Maps (Shift Key and Grouping)

How to Video 1 shows a couple of our favorite customizing tips for our downloadable, editable, ClipArtMaps.com PowerPoint clip art maps: Use of Shift Key and Grouping and Ungrouping.

Tip 1. Benefits of the Shift Key

This is one of the most useful PowerPoint tips for changing several objects at the same time instead of one by one.

Holding down the Shift Key on the keyboard allows you to select multiple objects with the pointer for customizing.

Holding down the Shift Key click on the objects you want one after the other, you can also deselect an object if you didn’t mean to select it by just clicking on it again. It works like a toggle switch, click on, click off. Now when you select a color fill, all of the states or counties selected will fill at the same time with that color.

Holding down the Shift Key is also used to keep an object proportional if you are enlarging or reducing it.

Tip 2. Grouping and Ungrouping

When working with complex graphics like a map, Grouping and Ungrouping becomes very helpful to keep your map organized.
After you have customized an area of the map that contains several objects you should group them together to keep the elements from getting moved around by accident.

Hold down the Shift key and select each one by clicking on them with the pointer, once they are all selected you can group them together. GROUP is located in the DRAW Popup menu in the DRAWING Tool Bar. Select GROUP, you will now see the many handles of the objects turn into just eight. On the PC and Mac GROUP is also located in the Popup box when you right-click with the mouse, make sure you are over one of the maps before clicking.

Grouping is also used when you want to Enlarge or Reduce several object. Group the objects first and then change size. Hold down the SHIFT Key to keep everything proportional