# How to edit in groups

**URL:** <https://discourse.softpress.com/t/how-to-edit-in-groups/9184>\
**Category:** EWA\
**Created:** [October 25, 2010, 12:09pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/how-to-edit-in-groups/9184 "2010-10-25T12:09:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lorenz](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/9d8465/32.png) [@Lorenz](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Lorenz)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 12:09pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/how-to-edit-in-groups/9184/1 "2010-10-25T12:09:49Z")

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Hi,

Is it possible to edit text within a group without having to ungroup?

I have an effect on the group and want to change the text in the group without  
deleting the effect.

In other programs you typically you can select items in a group by double clicking or  
shift clicking but I didn’t find a working shortcut for easy web animator?

Greetings,

Lorenz

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**Author:** ![TIm\_Plumb1](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TIm\_Plumb1](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/TIm_Plumb1)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 9:15am UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/how-to-edit-in-groups/9184/2 "2010-10-28T09:15:12Z")

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Hi Lorenz,  
Unfortunately not. What you can try is to make a movie clip from your  
combined items and then use this in your main animation. If you need  
to edit the text then you simply change the text in the clip and all  
of the instances of the clip in the movie will get updated.

Try this;

1. Select all of the items you want to group and group them (Items/  
Group)
2. In the properties panel make a note of the combined size of the group
3. Ungroup all of the items again
4. Select the items again (the selection is lost for some reason) and  
Edit/ Cut
5. In the library panel click on the small ‘new movie clip’ icon in  
the top right of the panel
6. When prompted give the movie clip a suitable name and the  
dimensions you noted from step 2
7. Paste and position the group in the new movie clip window
8. Drag the movie clip to the main animation window

Now when you want to edit the text for the movie clip you can edit the  
clip rather than the grouped item. The other benefit is that a clip  
acts like a self contained group that can be used again and again in  
an animation. This is a great way to have an item animate (for  
example) constantly while the rest of the animation is halted.  
Regards,  
Tim.

On 25 Oct 2010, at 13:09, Lorenz wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Is it possible to edit text within a group without having to ungroup?
> 
> I have an effect on the group and want to change the text in the  
> group without  
> deleting the effect.
> 
> In other programs you typically you can select items in a group by  
> double clicking or  
> shift clicking but I didn’t find a working shortcut for easy web  
> animator?
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Lorenz

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Tim Plumb  
Creative Director  
Softpress Systems

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>
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