Grouping lets you treat multiple objects as one unit

When you have several shapes, text boxes, or images that belong together, grouping them means you can move, resize, or rotate them all at once without accidentally shifting one out of place. In Canva, you select the items you want to group, then use the group command to lock them together temporarily. You can ungroup them later if you need to edit one piece separately.

Grouping is most useful when you are building a design with repeating elements — a logo with text and a border, a product card with an image and price label, or a social media post where the background, text, and accent shapes need to stay aligned. Without grouping, moving one element often means repositioning everything else to match.

Key Takeaways

  • Select multiple items by clicking the first one, then holding Shift and clicking each additional item you want to group together.
  • Right-click the selected items and choose Group from the menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G on Windows or Cmd+G on Mac.
  • A grouped object moves, resizes, and rotates as a single unit, but you can still edit text or colors without ungrouping.
  • Ungroup items by right-clicking the group and selecting Ungroup when you need to adjust individual elements again.
  • Grouping is temporary and does not save permanently — it only lasts while you are working on that design.

How to select multiple items before grouping

Start by clicking the first object you want to include in the group. It will show selection handles — small squares around its edges. Then hold down the Shift key and click each additional item. As you Shift-click, each new item will highlight and add to your selection. You will see all selected items outlined at once.

If you want to select many items at once, you can also click and drag to draw a selection box around them. Start from an empty area of the canvas, press and hold your mouse button, then drag across all the items you want to include. Release the mouse, and every object inside that box will be selected.

Make sure you have selected everything you want grouped before moving to the next step. If you miss an item, you can Shift-click it to add it to the selection, or start over by clicking an empty area first to deselect everything.

The group command and where to find it

Once your items are selected, right-click anywhere on one of the selected objects. A menu will appear with several options. Look for the word "Group" in that menu and click it. On Windows, you can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G. On Mac, press Cmd+G instead.

After you group, the selection handles will change slightly — you will see a single bounding box around all the items together, rather than individual boxes around each one. This tells you the group is active. The items are now linked and will move together.

What you can and cannot do with grouped items

A grouped object moves as one unit. Click and drag it anywhere on the canvas, and every item inside moves with it. You can also resize the entire group by dragging a corner handle, or rotate it by clicking once more to reveal the rotation handle. All items scale and rotate together proportionally.

You can still edit text inside a group without ungrouping. Double-click a text box within the group to edit the words, change the font, or adjust the color. You can also change the color of shapes or images by selecting them and using the color tools in the toolbar. These edits do not break the group.

What you cannot do is move or resize individual items while they are grouped. If you try to click one object inside the group, the entire group will select instead. This is the whole point — it prevents accidental misalignment. When you need to adjust one piece separately, you must ungroup first.

How to ungroup items when you need to edit separately

Right-click the grouped object and select "Ungroup" from the menu. The items will separate, and each one will be selectable on its own again. You can now move, resize, or edit any single item without affecting the others.

Ungrouping does not delete anything or change the design. It straightforward breaks the link so you have full control over each element. You can group the items again later if you want, or leave them ungrouped if you are done making adjustments.

Grouping nested groups and working with layers

You can group items that are already grouped. If you have two separate groups and want to treat them as one larger unit, select both groups and group them again. Canva will create a nested group — a group within a group. This is useful for complex designs with many moving parts.

When you ungroup a nested group, it only breaks apart one level. If you grouped Group A and Group B together, ungrouping will separate them back into Group A and Group B, but Group A and Group B will still be grouped internally. You would need to ungroup again to get back to individual items.

Grouping is different from using layers. Layers are the stacking order of objects — which items sit on top of or behind others. Grouping is about linking items to move together. You can use both at the same time: group related items, then adjust their layer order if needed.

Common reasons grouping saves time in real designs

If you are designing a business card, you might group the logo, company name, and a decorative line together so they stay aligned when you resize the card for different formats. If you are making a social media post, you could group the background color, a semi-transparent overlay, and accent shapes so they move as one when you adjust the composition.

For product mockups or catalog layouts, grouping a product image with its price label and description keeps everything positioned correctly even if you need to duplicate the card multiple times. Without grouping, duplicating would copy each element separately, and you would have to realign everything by hand.

Grouping also prevents mistakes when you are collaborating or coming back to a design later. If someone else opens your file or you return to it weeks later, grouped items stay together and are less likely to be accidentally moved out of place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I group items that are different types, like text and images and shapes?

Yes. You can group any combination of objects together — text, images, shapes, icons, or anything else on the canvas. Canva treats them all the same way once grouped.

Does grouping change the file size or slow down Canva?

No. Grouping is just a way of organizing objects in the editor. It does not affect how the design is saved or how fast Canva runs. You can group as many items as you need.

What happens to a group if I copy and paste it?

The group stays grouped when you copy and paste it. The pasted copy will be a grouped object with the same items linked together, so you can move the whole thing around as one unit.

Can I group items on different pages of the same design?

No. Grouping only works within a single page. If you switch to a different page, the group is still there but separate. You cannot link items across pages.

If I group items and then delete one, does the whole group disappear?

No. If you delete one item from a group, that item is removed but the rest of the group stays intact and grouped together. The remaining items will still move as one unit.