I keep getting lost in to areas My pointer keeps changing into a crosshairs and I then cannot select anything on the screen. I keep getting a coloured circled when I try to select. How do I get the regular mouse pointer back??

Also. looking for the steps to group objects on the screen, examples: curves in svg.
You might have switched from the selector to the 3d cursor 
watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AqaKD0d5v0