How to group items and keep them together?

[elindo586]

So I highlighted a bunch of items and press Ctrl G to group them. Now I can see on the layer panel all the items in a group. Now, how do I make sure to keep them together and not pick individual component out of the group? I want the entire group to move at once and NOT slip any of the items alone. The problem I have is that I keep dragging individual items that belong to a group, and it keep messing with the alignment and I have to re-align everything from that group.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Use the Selection tool (Black Arrow) or Group Selection tool (White Arrow with a +) to move the group as a whole.

[elindo586]

Is there a way to lock them all together?  One problem is that items within this group are touching other items outside group and selecting just the group without touching other items later on is not that easy.   Would be nice to lock them and just drag them together regardless if one of the items is touching another items outside the group.

[Larry G. Schneider · Accepted solution]

If you've grouped them, then they will move as a unit. If you are having trouble selecting the group, you can use the Layer panel and select the group there.

[elindo586]

That works... thanks!

[Kurt Gold]

One would probably first have to see one of your sample .ai files, but as per your description I can imagine that Illustrator's Isolation mode features could be of some interest to you.