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About this lesson
How to format and group inserted objects and manipulate lines in Google Drawings.
Exercise files
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Formatting and Grouping Shapes, Lines, and ObjectsLink Formatting and Grouping Shapes, Lines, and Objects Solution
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Quick reference
Formatting and Grouping Shapes, Lines, and Objects
There are various ways to move and change the sizes, dimensions and colors of objects in a Google drawing.
When to use
When you need to change the objects in a drawing in almost any way.
Instructions
Selecting objects
- Click on “Select” in the toolbar (if not already highlighted)
- Click on an object
- Drag the selection tool around multiple objects
- Hold “Ctrl” or “Shift” and click different objects to add each object to the selection
Moving and Re-sizing objects
- Drag an object to move it
- The red lines tell you when you are lined up with the edges or center of the slide or the other objects
- Click “View” - “Snap to” - “Grid” to make objects align to an invisible grid
- Drag the blue boxes to change its shape
- Hold the “Shift” key when dragging to keep the same dimensions
- Hold the “Ctrl” key when dragging to move the re-size around its center point
- Drag the blue button to rotate the object
- Drag the orange button (if there is one) to change some other feature
Editing text
- Text can be written and edited in text boxes, shapes, and tables
- The buttons in the toolbar format text the same way as in Google Docs
- Position text inside the box or shape using the “Align” buttons
Changing borders and lines
- Select the objects you want to change
- In the toolbar click:
- Line color: Changes color
- Line weight: Changes thickness
- Line dash: Changes visual style
Changing object color
- Select the objects you want to change
- In the toolbar, click “Fill color”
Changing line ends
- Select the lines you want to change
- In the toolbar, click “Line start” or “Line end” and click on the end you want
- 00:04 Now that we're familiar with adding objects and
- 00:07 different pieces of content to our drawing canvas,
- 00:10 let's take a look at how we can manipulate that content here within Google drawings.
- 00:16 You may recall that this image on the right-hand side
- 00:19 actually consists of two different components.
- 00:22 In front, I first have my microphone image.
- 00:26 And then, behind, I have this blue circle.
- 00:29 But what if I would like them to behave together?
- 00:32 What if I would like to move them at the same time?
- 00:36 Well, to do so, you can simply drag and
- 00:38 select over the objects you would like to move or manipulate together.
- 00:43 In this case, I can click and drag and
- 00:46 move both of these objects at the same time.
- 00:49 But what if I’d always like these objects to move and behave together?
- 00:54 Once again, I’m going to start by selecting these objects.
- 00:58 And next, I’m going to right-click and select Group.
- 01:03 This will group these objects together.
- 01:06 So now, just a single click, and I can move both of them at the very same time.
- 01:12 If I don't want these images, or these objects to be grouped any further,
- 01:16 I can simply right-click again and select Ungroup.
- 01:21 Now, let's take a quick look at this arrow image on the left-hand side.
- 01:26 Let's see how we can change the color of this object.
- 01:29 Perhaps I'm not terribly wild about this red color.
- 01:33 So by selecting the object, I can go up to the toolbar and change the fill color.
- 01:39 By selecting the Fill Color icon, I can select any other color that I like.
- 01:45 I'm gonna select that blue there.
- 01:47 But maybe I'd also like to change the border, the outline, of this object.
- 01:52 Once again, I'm gonna select the object.
- 01:55 And right next to the fill color is our border color.
- 01:59 And in this case, I'm gonna give it something bright.
- 02:01 I'm gonna give it this yellow here.
- 02:03 So now, you can see I've changed the color of the object, and
- 02:07 I've also changed the border outline of this object.
- 02:12 Let's also take a look at how we can add another type of content, another component
- 02:17 to our drawing, this time, a line, and how we can manipulate that as well.
- 02:22 By selecting the line icon, I can click and
- 02:25 drag, and add a line to my canvas here.
- 02:29 Now, I may want to change different aspects of this line.
- 02:32 Here, you can see it's rather plain.
- 02:34 By selecting the line, I am given additional options here,
- 02:38 including the ability to change the color, change the line weight, or thickness.
- 02:44 But what I wanna do in this case is change the ends of my line.
- 02:48 So the start of my line, I would like it to be an arrow.
- 02:52 And the back of my line, if I select the line end,
- 02:56 I would like it to be this little circle.
- 03:00 So now, you can see I've not only added a line, but I've manipulated it.
- 03:04 I've changed it so I can have the desired shapes on both the start and
- 03:09 the finish of my line.
- 03:12 So I would encourage you to experiment within Google drawings.
- 03:16 Get to know the different options, the different formats, the different shapes,
- 03:20 the different pieces of content that you can add, and how you can manipulate both
- 03:24 their size, their color, and other components of that object.
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