How to Group Elements in Canva to Save Time on Design

Want to be a Canva power user?

Learn how to group elements in Canva!

It’s one of the simplest things to do, so you can easily move or duplicate the grouped elements and speed up your design process.

But if you’ve never grouped elements before, it might not be instantly obvious how to make this happen.

The good news is that it works the same in the free version and in Canva Pro. And, you can do it in the app too!

So let’s take a look at the different ways to group elements in Canva so you can make the most of this useful feature.

How to group elements in Canva on desktop

We’ll start with the desktop version of Canva, and them move on to how to group in the apps.

You have a couple options to group items at Canva.com. We’ll start with the mouse grab option.

First, open a design in the size you require.

Then you need to find the elements you want to add to the design. In this case, I have a desktop screen and a photograph.

Place the elements on the design, then arrange them so that they are in the right position. I placed the photo on the screen as if it were the image viewable on screen.

The simplest way to group the elements is to click your mouse off the design, then while holding the left button, drag the mouse to cover all the elements you want in the group.

This will create a single turquoise line around the outside of the selected pieces.

Or if you are a fan of keyboard shortcuts, Command or CTRL + A will select all of the elements on the design.

Now click the Group button from the top menu, and the two items will become one single element.

Or use Command or CTRL + G to group the design elements together.

You can now easily move them around and both will stay in their relative position to each other.

You can also resize them, and they’ll retain their positions and ratios with each other. See the results of resizing below.

To ungroup them, simply click the Ungroup option on the top menu and they will revert to two separate elements again.

Or use the Command or CTRL + Shift + G to ungroup them.

How to group specific elements

Sometimes you might want to group specific elements and not others you have in a design.

So maybe you want to select the desktop screen but not any background element.

Here, let’s say we want to group the photo and the screen but not the keyboard.

We could still use the mouse grab option – but there’s another way.

This works well if you have lots of items close together and find that grabbing the right things isn’t easy. Or maybe your elements overlap each other, making the mouse grab method impossible.

Instead, click one of the items to group, then hold the Shift button and click the other.

Then click the Group button. Now just those two items are grouped, while the third remains separate.

If you wanted to add more than two things, or even lots of elements, just keep holding Shift and clicking until you’ve selected all of them. Then hit Group.

Again, you can ungroup elements with the top menu button at any point.

How to group elements in the Canva app

If you’re using the Android or iPhone Canva app to make some quick social media images or other designs, you can still group elements.

Touch and hold the first element that you want to add to the group.

Then tap each additional element you want to add.

Select the Done button in the popup and your items are grouped temporarily.

To make this a permanent group, use the Group button at the bottom.

You can then ungroup elements with the same button.

How to lock an element in Canva

Another part of grouping elements is the need to sometimes lock them to avoid them being moved or resized. There are lots of reasons to do this, and one easy way to accomplish it.

Select the element or group you want to ensure doesn’t alter.

Click the padlock on the top menu. This stops the item from being altered from its current dimensions, position, or grouping.

The padlock icon will be visible on the outline of the locked elements.

If you then decide you want to move or alter it, simply click the padlock again to unlock it.

Making the most of grouping

Grouping elements in Canva is a simple process, but one that’s really powerful.

You can use it on any type of element: vector elements, images and photos, and any of the decorative element options in Canva.

Knowing how to group in Canva gives you total control over elements in the design to make everything just as you want it – pronto!

Disclosure: If you purchase a plan, I may earn a commission, at no cost to you.

Want more tutorials?

Learn keyboard shortcuts and more in my ultimate guide on how to use Canva!