Once a shape mode is applied, the resulting shape is referred to as a compound shape. The top row of the Pathfinder panel contains four functions, called shape modes, which are used to combine multiple selected shapes in different ways. Illustrator's Pathfinder panel, which you can open by choosing Window > Pathfinder, contains a wellspring of functions that you can perform with at least two selected paths. It can also be easier to edit existing shapes using other shapes rather than trying to adjust the anchor points of individual paths. Although you can use a variety of the tools we've mentioned so far in this chapter to create and edit paths of any shape, many times it's far easier to combine simple shapes to create more complex ones. Those tools are great on their own, but you'll often need to create shapes that are a bit more complex. In Chapter 2, Vectors 101, you learned about using the basic drawing tools such as the Rectangle tool and the Ellipse tool.

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