Sometimes you may find that Grouping a set of objects isn’t enough. You may want to combine a number of paths into one vector object. You can do this by multiple selecting your objects and {Clicking}on the "Join" button. This will create a single object made up of composite paths. The new object takes on the stroke and fill characteristics of the bottom-most object in the arrangement. You should experiment with this tool to see what types of results you can get with it.

You can split a joined object by selecting it with the Pointer and {Clicking} on the "Split" button.  This will break the joined object back into the original objects from which it was created. The separate objects will, however, now be whatever color the joined object was and not their original color.