Combining two runes will give you a random rune of the same tier. Combining 5 runes will give you a random rune of the next highest tier. You cannot combine 5 tier 3 runes at once (as there is no tier 4).
The rune combiner is random. It doesn't matter whether you combine marks, glyphs, seals, or quintessences -- they all work with each other, and the output can be anything.
The idea is that, generally, runes themselves are priced such that it is slightly cheaper to generate a tier 3 runeset from your old runes than by buying the tier 3 runes on their own. For instance, the level 1 +AD rune is 15 ip, while the level 2 +AD rune is 80 ip -- if you bought 5 of the level 1 runes, combined them, and wound up with a level 2 +AD rune, you would have saved yourself IP.
Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, this process is completely random. If you have tier 1 and 2 runes, by all means, combine them to higher levels; the rune combiner is just a way to possibly recoup the IP you spent on runes you no longer find useful, but it cannot be counted on to give you what you want. You might luck out and combine 2 random runes into a +Dodge quintessence (very expensive!) -- or you might get a mana/5 Mark (with a tertiary stat, and probably not worth the IP cost of your combined runes).
It's very much a gamble, and you don't get anything exclusive from it, so use it if you need to get rid of T1 / T2 runes, and safely ignore it otherwise.
Map Awareness
Riot has garnered some pretty effective videos with their Video Tutorial contest (Links posted below). As a beginner, you want to primarily focus on making sure you don't get ambushed by the other team (called a "gank"). While some of this involves Map Awareness, you also need to learn to not overextend, as well as keeping an eye on the enemies you're fighting in your lane. If you cannot see one or both of the enemies in your lane, let your teammates know!
Last Hitting
Killing minions and enemy players nets you gold to buy items. However, if you don't land the killing blow on an enemy minion, you will get ZERO gold, even if you've done most of the damage to it.
The faster you kill enemy minions, the faster the minions reach the enemy tower, which will make quick work of all non-cannon minions. It's better to keep the minion fights as close to the middle as you can; you only need to finish off the minion to get gold from it -- see if you can limit yourself to only attacking minions when you will kill them!
Tower Aggro
The enemy towers are dangerous. They have lots of health, armor, and a powerful attack that can quickly decimate low-level heroes. It's important, then, to know how the turret picks its target.
Enemy towers will always target allied minions first, switching to champions only if there are no longer any allied minions around. The exception to this is if you deal damage to an enemy champion, in which case the tower will immediately switch to the damaging champion, shooting at them until they die or move out of range.
Let me repeat that: If you deal damage to an enemy champion within range of the tower, it will immediately start shooting at you: You do not want this. Be very careful when attacking the enemy at their own tower.
Recommended Viewing
Four of these videos are a result of the Valoran Video Contest held by Riot Games, and are quick, 1-minute videos touching on just the basics (which seems exactly what you're looking for). The fifth video is made by Shurelia, an employee of Riot Games, and goes much more in-depth into what "Zoning" is, and how to take advantage of it.
Best Answer
There aren't any inbuild shortcuts in the game, but there is a program which allows you to change the recommended items into what you want them to be. It should make buying easier.
The program is called Enigma's Recommended Item Changer, and can be found here: http://enigmablade.net/eric/