When you ungroup a grouped set of drawing shapes that was copied from Excel, PowerPoint, or Word, there are two sets of duplicate drawing shapes that overlay each other (908195)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Excel 2002
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2002
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
  • Microsoft Word 2002

SYMPTOMS

When you ungroup a grouped set of drawing shapes that was copied from one of the programs that are listed in the "Applies to" section, there are two sets of duplicate drawing shapes that overlay each other.

Note To see the overlaid drawing shapes after you ungroup the drawing, click to select one of the drawing shapes. Then, move the shape to a different position. The duplicate drawing shape is then visible.

CAUSE

This behavior may occur when you perform the following steps:
  1. On the Edit menu, you click Paste Special. Then, you paste the grouped drawing shapes by using the Picture (Windows Metafile) format or the Picture (Enhanced Metafile) format.
  2. You ungroup the drawing shapes by right-clicking the drawing object, pointing to Grouping, and then clicking Ungroup. Then, you click Yes on the following message: This is an imported picture, not a group. Do you want to convert it to a Microsoft Office drawing object?

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, paste the grouped drawing shapes by using the MS Office Drawing Object format. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
  2. In the Paste Special dialog box, click MS Office Drawing Object, and then click OK.

MORE INFORMATION

When you perform the steps that are listed in the "Cause" section, the grouped set of drawing shapes is actually converted two times. For example, the grouped set of drawing shapes is first converted to a metafile. Then, the metafile is converted into an Office drawing object when you click Yes on the following message:This is an imported picture, not a group. Do you want to convert it to a Microsoft Office drawing object? This behavior is expected because the conversions are not a symmetric operation. That is, the metafile format and the Office drawing object format have different capabilities and different internal representations of the objects.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:3/23/2006
Keywords:kbgraphic kbtshoot kbprb KB908195 kbAudEndUser kbAudITPRO
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