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Can't group previously ungrouped items

  • 14 April 2021
  • 8 replies
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I had two items that were grouped; I ungrouped them to make some changes, then wanted to regroup back, but found I couldn’t - the group option just isn’t there. Then the same happened with another group, again with items that were previously in a group. Is this a feature or a bug, or am I doing something wrong? It seems I’m otherwise able to group anything I want, just not items that were previously ungrouped (at least that’s what I think is causing the problem, could be wrong of course!)

Cheers,

Roo

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Best answer by Robert Johnson 15 April 2021, 19:14

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Userlevel 7
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@Roo - Are one of the objects locked perhaps? Can you create a short Loom video of this in action by creating two new objects, group them, ungroup, then and then try to group them again?

Okay, it’s not the ‘previously ungrouped’ bit which is causing the problem. Because I have another group which I’ve just ungrouped to see if I can replicate the problem, and I can’t; I can regroup the items no problem.

And to answer your question, @Robert Johnson — no, none of the items in question are locked.

I’ll mess around with it a bit more and report back then.

Roo

Nope, I can’t figure out what’s causing this, it makes no sense. I’ve just duplicated a group (one shape and one sticky note), ungrouped it, and now I can’t regroup the items back. 

Earlier for a while I thought it had to do with items that had connecting lines (or that had had lines earlier, but they were removed), but that’s not it, either. Some objects just cannot be grouped, while others (of the same type) can.

Can I ask, are there any item types that cannot be grouped, or any conditions that would prevent grouping?

Thanks,

Roo

Userlevel 7
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@Roo - I thought perhaps you were onto something with “trying to re-group duplicated objects”, but I did a test and could re-group them. Outside of any Frames or Table, Kanban, or User Story Mapping frameworks, I:

  1. Grouped two different objects
  2. Duplicated them
  3. ungrouped them
  4. and regrouped them.

 

The only notes I see about scenarios where grouping will not work here in the Structuring Board Content → Grouping help center article - do any of these restrictions apply to your scenario?

 

Userlevel 2

I came with similar problem, but it is in a Table.


Why can’t you group objects in a Table?

Userlevel 7
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@RobOK - Tables are quite new and I suspect that it is a technical limitation - something to do with the way objects relationships to other objects are stored, e.g., a sticky note object is kind of “grouped” itself to the Table object, so that when you move the table, the sticky note moves too - same as a Frame. So, I am guessing that Miro needs to write more code to account for “other” relationships, e.g., group objects have a relationship to each other. Who knows - they may choose to never add the ability to group objects properly inside of other objects/frameworks.

Here’s a quick example of this in action. I have a sticky and icon/png grouped. I put them in a standard frame and they are fine. But as soon as I turn on the grid mode in the frame, they grouping goes weird. This is because in order for the grid mode to work, Miro needs to know where the objects in the grid frame are in relation to the frame and each other. When you already had two or more objects that were grouped together, Miro hasn’t accounted/coded for this scenario.

 

I’m so glad you mentioned tables, it seems that’s the culprit here!! :)

I have a big table behind everything, with not much content in it, it’s mainly providing a matrix for overlaying other stuff onto. I’ve managed to accidentally connect (group or otherwise, not sure yet?) at least a few items to the table, which explains why those couldn’t then be grouped to anything else.

I added the table after I had already created some of the other content, which explains why some items were earlier grouped, but couldn’t be regrouped after ungrouping them.

I’ve not yet had a chance to dig into this further, so don’t know whether by merely having that table in the frame means that anything placed on top of it becomes ungroupable, just because it’s on top of a table?

Anyway, problem solved — many thanks! :)

Best,

Roo

Userlevel 7
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@Roo - You are correct - you cannot group in Tables:

⚠️ Content within Tables can't be locked and grouped.