Working With Selected Objects

Once you have a set of selected objects, there are several things you may do with them.

Operations on All Selected Objects

The following operations can be done on all selected objects as a set.

Move Selected Objects

You can move selected objects as a group, without changing their relative positions. To do this, place the mouse pointer inside a shape or on a blank spot on a line that is part of the selected set and then drag to the desired new location.

Tip

Be sure to avoid placing the mouse on an object's handle, or this will resize the object instead of moving the selected set of objects.

Copy, Cut, Paste, Duplicate, Delete

You can perform any of the normal edit operations on a set of selected objects, just as you would for a single object, using either the shortcut key or the Edit menu. For example, to Duplicate a set of selected objects, select Edit / Duplicate or press Ctrl+D. A copy of the entire set of objects will be created on your canvas, just below and to the left of the original objects. Note that when you Duplicate or Paste a set of objects, after the operation only the newly-created objects are selected.

Working With Individual Objects

While a set of objects is selected, you may still resize or modify a single object's properties without losing the currently selected set. To resize an object, place the mouse pointer over the desired handle of the object and drag the handle to resize. To view or change an object's properties, double-click anywhere on the object and the properties dialog box will display.

For line objects, you may change the line's connection points and change the shape of the line while a line is part of a selected set. Just place the pointer on the desired handle of the line and drag it as needed.

Tip

When pulling up the properties dialog, be sure not to double-click on the blank canvas or all of the objects will be deselected.

Creating an Object Group

As noted above, it is easy to create and remove sets of selected objects, and a selection can be removed accidentally by double-clicking on a blank area of the canvas. If you wish to keep a set of selected objects as a permanent group so that you will not accidentally deselect them, you can create an object group. Just select ObjectsGroup to create the group. You can select ObjectsUngroup to remove the group. See Grouping Objects for more information on groups.