In this month's tutorial, you will need to understand how Xara's Combine Shapes (Arrange menu) path commands work.

In a nutshell, here are the four operations and what they do.

1. Add Shapes makes a continuous outline and removes any overlapping shapes inside the outline. The fill properties for the top shape are applied to the resulting shape.

2. Subtract Shapes removes the portion of an object beneath the top shape or object.

3. Intersect Shapes creates a new shape where the two shapes overlap.

4. Slice Shapes is a combination of Subtract Shapes and Intersect Shapes . The intersected shape has been colored to differentiate it from the other shape.

Note: In all but Add Shapes, the top shape is deleted. In the case of Intersect Shapes, only the intersection remains.