Adobe INDESIGN 2.0 - USING HELP Help Manual page 215

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Changes to path attributes (such as stroke and fill) always alter all subpaths in a
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composite path—it doesn't matter which selection tool you use, or how many
subpaths you select. To preserve the individual stroke and fill attributes of the paths
you want to combine, group them instead.
In a compound path, any effect that is positioned relative to a path's bounding box—
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such as a gradient, or an image pasted inside—is actually positioned relative to the
bounding box of the entire compound path (that is, the path that encloses all of the
subpaths).
If you make a compound path, then change its properties and release it, using the
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Release command, the released paths inherit the compound path's properties; they
don't regain their original properties.
If your document contains compound paths with many smooth points, some output
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devices may have problems printing them. If so, simplify or eliminate the compound
paths, or convert them to bitmap images using a program such as Adobe Photoshop.
If you apply a fill to a compound path, holes sometimes don't appear where you expect
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them to. For a simple path like a rectangle, the inside, or the area you can fill, is easy to
see—it's the area within the enclosed path. However, with a compound path, InDesign
must determine whether the intersections created by a compound path's subpaths
are inside (filled areas) or outside (holes). The direction of each subpath—the order
in which its points were created—determines whether the area it defines is inside
or outside. If a subpath is filled when you want it be a hole, or vice versa, reverse the
direction of that subpath.
Compound path containing two subpaths with same
path directions (left) and opposite path directions (right)
Creating and editing compound paths
You can create a compound path from two or more open or closed paths. When you create
a compound path, all of the originally selected paths become subpaths of the new
compound path. The selected paths inherit the stroke and fill settings of the object
farthest back in the stacking order.
Note: If one or more selected objects have contents, such as text or imported images, the
attributes and contents of a compound path are set by the attributes and contents of the
object farthest back. Selected objects farther behind, without contents, won't affect the
compound path.
You can change the shape of any part of a compound path by using the direct-selection
tool to select one anchor point on one subpath. You can break up a compound path by
releasing it, which turns each of its subpaths into an independent path. Finally, you can
specify where holes appear in a compound path by reversing the path's direction.
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