https://youtu.be/iSkmAwIEHKI

To prevent problems with strokes, expand them first.

Likewise, you can use strokes for cool effects.

Minus front works for cutting holes out of letters! You would want to leave the stroke unexpanded then so the hole gets stroked too.

Unite will change everything to the same color as top object Don’t want that? Use merge. Strokes will disappear though

If subtract doesn’t work, it’s probably because your design is too complex. Do smaller bits at a time.

“Divide” to make a 3 color Venn diagram…

“Trim” and “merge” both flatten the object essentially. But merge will merge things that are the same color while trim will not.

Trim better to preserve shape. Merge better for a true flatten

Crop basically works as a cookie cutter/clipping mask

Outline is not the same as just adding a stroke. Hard to explain. Experiment.

https://youtu.be/XPk_1wytf3k

Trim is like divide but preserves top shapes