AFAIK it's not possible to change the text string in a grouped item without
ungrouping, manually or programmatically. You say you can manually - how, or
maybe I've misunderstood. You can though change font properties to the
entire group.

You're right about the group number identifier incrementing each time
ungrouped & regrouped. You can give it your own name and reapply when
regrouped. But it doesn't stop the object id number increment, which will
apply to this when regrouped, or any subsequently added shapes. It's
annoying, intuitively one might think problems could arise if the number
gets too large but that's never occurred for me, even with the number
getting into many 10,000's.

Regards,
Peter T

"Linking to specific cells in pivot table"
crosoft.com wrote in
message ...
Hi,

My macro fails when I try to have text within a textbox that is grouped
with
a trapezoid (Autoshape). The text box is contained with the trapezoid.
What's driving me crazy is that I can update the text box manually when
they
are grouped, but the macro fails when it tries to do the same thing. Is
there anyway to update the text box without ungrouping and then
regrouping?
I want to avoid this because the group number incremements every time you
re-group and I remember reading that when an object number gets too large,
the macro will fail. Below is my code -- thanks in advance for your
help!!

Sub updatewhengrouped()

ActiveSheet.Shapes("Text Box 7").Select
Selection.Characters.Text = "Always thought..."
Range("A1").Select

End Sub