How to Group (and Ungroup) Elements on Canva

If you need to move elements around your canvas artboard, grouping is the way to go. Grouping elements in Canva not only saves time, but also keeps the space of your design accurate.

How to Group and Ungroup Canva Elements From the Browser

Grouping elements on Canva allows you to move multiple elements around your artboard in one quick motion. It also ensures that the micro-layouts in your design remain consistent, such as a logo with a typeface underneath. Grouping in Canva is non-destructive, so you can easily ungroup your objects at any time.

Before grouping your items together, they must be selected first. You can select multiple elements in Canva in several ways.

Click and Drag to Select

If the elements you want to select and group are located together, the easiest way to select them is by clicking and dragging the cursor over the area.

Hovering over an element reveals a purple box around its borders. Clicking the cursor and dragging the elements displays a translucent purple box indicating the selected elements, while individual elements retain a purple border. This helps you visualize which items are selected or not.

You do not have to drag over the entire area of ​​each element you want to select, as long as any part of each element falls within your dragged limit, it will appear in your selected area.

Click and Shift to Select

If the elements you want to select and the group have other elements in their way – for example, you want to select all background elements but not text elements – you can’t just drag the cursor, or select the unwanted elements.

Instead, click the cursor on the first element you want to select, then press and hold Shift key while continuing to click on other items. Holding down Shift while clicking will add multiple items to your selection group. Once you have selected them all, leave them Shift.

To deselect individual items, simply click the item from the group while holding down Shift. You can mix and match the two selection methods to add or remove items to your selected group. Although all these features are found in the free version of Canva, you may want them consider upgrading to Canva Pro for more features.

Once you know how to select your items, it’s time to group them. There is more than one way to group elements with the browser version of Canva.

Use the Group and Ungroup Buttons

There are many hidden features in Canvabut the group is not one of them; the Group button is easily visible.

With two or more objects selected, the floating toolbar appears from your selection. This toolbar features the Group button next to it relevant Canva AI toolsDuplicate, Lock, Delete, and More. Selection group will put your selected items into a group.

Ungrouping is so easy. Select any element from the group and select Ungroup. Splitting your Canva group will return each element to an individually and independently mobile element.

Right-click to Group and Ungroup

Select the elements you want to group, then right-click and choose group from the menu.

The reverse works to ungroup your objects: right-click your group and choose Ungroup from the options. This, again, returns your previously grouped elements to independent elements once again.

Group and Ungroup with Keyboard Shortcut

The last way to group elements in the browser version of Canva is probably the most intuitive for designers – we sure love our keyboard shortcuts. First, select several objects, then hit Cmd + G (Mac) o Ctrl + G (Windows) to group your items in the blink of an eye.

To unaggregate with the keyboard shortcut, there is only one extra key: Shift. Choose your group and hit Shift + Cmd + G (Mac) o Shift + Ctrl + G (Windows) to return your elements to their independence.

Even grouped elements can be edited individually by double-clicking the specific element. For example, if you have a text box in your group, double-click on the text box to edit the text. The same goes for elements of the image that you want to edit further or even move; double-click on the individual element to make it editable, but it remains part of the group once done.

If you are using layers in Canvaremember that grouping elements on different layers groups layers. For example, if you need your layers in a specific order, grouping elements from the top and bottom, but not the middle, of the layers will re-order your layers once grouped. That’s something to keep in mind.

How to Group and Ungroup Elements in the Canva App

The Canva app is a great option for designing on the go, but it works differently than the web version of Canva. Let’s see how you can select, group and unaggregate elements on the Canva app for mobile or tablet.

Selecting Items in the Canva App

Since the Canva app uses touch technology, the selection of elements is a little different from being able to use the cursor or the Shift key in the browser version.

To select an individual element on the Canva app, tap the element once until a purple box surrounds it.

After selecting the first element, the floating toolbar should appear. Tap “…” which opens the No longer menu > choose Select Multiple. Then touch any other items you want to select; each element will have a purple box, and the group of selected elements will be bound in a box with white dots. The Select Multiple menu action also denotes how many items are selected in red, so you can keep track.

To cancel the selection, simply tap somewhere else on your canvas.

How to Group Elements in the Canva App

When several items are selected, you will already be in the No longer menu, which is where you’ll find the Group tool.

Tap groupand the border line with white dots with however-selected-elements-in-boxes-purple turns into a large purple box denoting the grouped element created. This is denoted again by the number on Select Multiplewhich now reads as 1.

To ungroup items in the Canva app, select the group, and the floating toolbar now offers the option Ungroup. If it does not appear, select “…” in the floating toolbar and select it Ungroup from here instead.