Grouping in Microsoft Word 2007

One of my questions from a blog a long time ago was:

Why in Microsoft Word 2007 can I not group pictures with textboxes or shapes? (I can group pictures or textboxes or shapes but I cannot group different kinds of elements. I was able to do that in 2003. Why would that be changed? I cannot even select different kinds of elements so that I can move them all at one time. Why is that?)

Here is an answer from Floyd of the College of DuPage Teacher's Learning Center.

It can be done. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s not anywhere as easy as it used to be.

You start by inserting a Drawing Canvas into your document. Copy/cut and paste the picture onto the canvas. Cut/copy and paste the text box onto the canvas. Position and format them as desired. Use the Ctrl key to select the two objects. Go to one of the format tabs and select Group. Move the newly grouped object off of the canvas and delete the canvas.

A royal pain – Microsoft would label this as a feature.

Thanks, Floyd, that does answer part of my question. The "why" part is still unanswered. I would love an answer for that from the developers of Microsoft 2007. What I would love even better was a free download to fix that problem so that it worked easily like in 2003.