How to use the Group cards in Sway

The Group card provides a way to easily display a set of cards in a neatly organised way. There are five (5) different group types to choose from. You can choose to either create each group type from scratch or select existing image cards and group them yourself. Each group type provides a different layout for your images.

Insert a Group card

1. If you have the Sway app installed go ahead and open it, otherwise open a web browser and go to https://sway.cloud.microsoft/.
2. Log in with your Microsoft 365 account and open an existing Sway you wish to add content to, OR create a new Sway and add a Title card if needed.
3. Hover over the card where you wish to insert the Group card.
4. Click the + icon:

5. From the categories, choose Group.
6. The five (5) different Group card options will appear.
7. Choose the option you wish to use then follow below for steps on how to customise the card.

Using the customise the Group card

Regardless of which Group card you choose, they are all customised the same way with the same options.

To customise a Group card, follow these steps:

1. In the example below, I have inserted the Automatic Group card:

2. You will notice that all Group cards have a grey border around the cards to give you a visual to see they are a group.
3. Click inside the card to + Add Content.
4. Here you can choose the type of content to add, select from Text, Image, Stack or Upload. For this exericse I will choose Image. Different Group cards may give you different options of what type of content can be added.
5. The Suggested Searches pane will appear:

6. Here you can perform your own search using the Search sources field. This will perform an image search. If you have content on your computer you wish to use, click My Device. Of if content is stored in your OneDrive, click OneDrive for Business.
7. Find and select an image to add to the card.
8. One image has now been added to the group. Each image will have it’s own card details you can edit including a Caption and various formatting options. See my other post on how to customise an image card.
9. To add more content to the card, click the + icon at the bottom of the last card you added so that it is inserted inside the group and not as a card outside the group.

10. The images should now all appear inside the Automatic Group card.

11. To see how Sway will layout the images in the Group card, click Play in the top right corner.
12. Once you have seen the preview, click the Edit button to return back to the Sway storyline to keep adding content.

Group existing cards

Let’s look at how you can take existing image cards and change them into a group to make use of the Group card layout options.

1. Insert 2 or 3 separate Image cards (do not add as part of a Group card).

2. Click to select one of the image cards.
3. Tick the checkbox in the bottom right corner:

4. Repeat and select the other image cards you wish to include in the group.
5. From the toolbar, click Group:

6. The image cards will now be grouped together as an Automatic Group.

Change a Group Type

Sway allows you to easily change Group Types between the five options.

To change the Group type:

1. Select the Group you wish to change.
2. From the top menu bar, choose Group Type:

3. Choose a different group type from the options down the right side of the screen.
4. Play the Sway to see the new Group layout.

Note: To use the Comparison group type you must only select two (2) image cards and group them. The Comparison group is not available for more than 2 cards.

Ungroup cards

Sway allows you to change an existing group back to individual image cards.

1. Select the existing Group.
2. From the top menu bar, choose Ungroup.
3. The grouped cards will now change back to individual cards in the storyline.

By taking advantage of Sway’s Group cards, you can present your images and content in a cleaner, more engaging way with very little effort. It doesn’t matter if you are organising existing cards or experimenting with different layouts, the five group types give you plenty of flexibility to create a polished, professional‑looking Sway. Feel free to leave any questions.