Grouped action settings

A group of objects cannot have an Action Setting but a grouped object CAN!

Above is two autoshapes that are grouped. Right click on the group and Action Settings is greyed out. But now, we take advantage of some of the hidden power of PowerPoint!

Select one shape again so it is selected within the group.

Right click on the individually selected shape and you get an active Action Setting.

I selected Hyperlink to next slide on Mouse Click. Now, we do this for the second autoshape. If you select it within  the group, you can add the same (or different) Action Setting. That is, you can add an Action Setting to click to go to the next slide, a different slide, or even End Show.

With this technique, you can add Action Settings to grouped objects that are the same or different. And, they are still locked to the object and not the group. So, hitting either object in a group will trigger the same or different action (PowerPoint 2003, at least).

This also works for images that are grouped.