Resizing Grouped Objects in PPT 2002

[Scott Meyers]

I have a group of objects, several of which have text inside them, and I want to
make a copy of the group and resize it to 50% of the original size. I've
tried copying and pasting, pasting special as EMF, and pasting special as a
picture, and nothing works: when I resize the result, the text doesn't get
smaller, and the objects themselves end up in strange places. (I can't describe
it any more precisely, sorry, because I haven't been able to see any recurring
pattern about what happens to the various rectangles, triangles, and lines in
the group when I try to resize the group.)

I'm using PPT 2002 (from Office XP). Can somebody please tell me how I can make
a reduced-size copy of a group of shapes, some of which have text inside them?
It'd be nice if I could edit the resulting reduced-size group, but if I end up
with something uneditable, I can live with that.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Ute Simon]

I have a group of objects, several of which have text inside them, and I

want to make a copy of the group and resize it to 50% of the original size.
I've tried copying and pasting, pasting special as EMF, and pasting special
as a picture, and nothing works: when I resize the result, the text
doesn't get smaller, and the objects themselves end up in strange places.
(I can't describe it any more precisely, sorry, because I haven't been able
to see any recurring pattern about what happens to the various rectangles,
triangles, and lines in the group when I try to resize the group.)

I'm using PPT 2002 (from Office XP). Can somebody please tell me how I
can make a reduced-size copy of a group of shapes, some of which have text
inside them? It'd be nice if I could edit the resulting reduced-size
group, but if I end up with something uneditable, I can live with that.

Hi Scott,

you can't resize text by dragging the handles on that object, but pasting
special is a good start, because it turns text into graphics. Make sure,
that you select everything you want to resize, especially the text boxes.
Then use the Group command on the Drawing toolbar to group these items (text
in placeholders cannot be grouped). Move the new group to the side with the
arrow keys to test, whether there's everything in it and you have not
forgotten any object. Then copy and paste special as an EMF. Use the handles
or the Format command to resize.

Best regards,
Ute

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have a group of objects, several of which have text inside them, and I want to
make a copy of the group and resize it to 50% of the original size. I've
tried copying and pasting, pasting special as EMF, and pasting special as a
picture, and nothing works: when I resize the result, the text doesn't get
smaller, and the objects themselves end up in strange places. (I can't describe
it any more precisely, sorry, because I haven't been able to see any recurring
pattern about what happens to the various rectangles, triangles, and lines in
the group when I try to resize the group.)

I'm using PPT 2002 (from Office XP). Can somebody please tell me how I can make
a reduced-size copy of a group of shapes, some of which have text inside them?
It'd be nice if I could edit the resulting reduced-size group, but if I end up
with something uneditable, I can live with that.

Glad you mentioned that, Scott.
If the other suggestions here don't work, try copy and then Paste Special and
choose PNG as the type.

 

[Scott Meyers]

you can't resize text by dragging the handles on that object, but pasting
special is a good start, because it turns text into graphics. Make sure,
that you select everything you want to resize, especially the text boxes.
Then use the Group command on the Drawing toolbar to group these items (text
in placeholders cannot be grouped). Move the new group to the side with the
arrow keys to test, whether there's everything in it and you have not
forgotten any object. Then copy and paste special as an EMF. Use the handles
or the Format command to resize.

I finally got this to work by pasting special as a picture, but there was a
quirk that threw me for a while. After pasting as a picture, when I resized via
Format>Picture...>Size and entering a value (e.g., 50%, though I observed the
same behavior regardless of the value I entered), the result (via either
"Preview" or "OK") was that the picture was reduced to nothing -- to 0% of its
size. (I know the picture was still there, because the resize handles were
visible.) If I then resized again (to any value), the resize worked correctly.

So to resize to 50% after pasting a group as a picture, I'd resize the picture
to some value, preview the change (and watch the picture get reduced to 0% of
its size), resize again to 50%, preview the change (which would now show the
picture at 50% of its original size), then click OK.

Does anybody have any idea why I have to resize a picture twice to actually
resize it? One of the reasons I posted originally was that I figured that
resizing didn't work, because resizing only once makes the picture disappear.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Chirag]

Look at ProTools for PowerPoint add-in at
http://officeone.mvps.org/protools/protools.html - it allows you to resize
objects even when they are part of another group.

- Chirag

Shortcut Manager - Assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items and macros
http://officeone.mvps.org/ppsctmgr/ppsctmgr.html