Originally posted by Megahurts:

Right click to select your options.
When leveling ground you will raise the ground to the level you are standing on. However, if you press shift and click, you will make a slope from/to.

That phrasing be a bit confusing for peeps to understand.
Clicking = Level the ground (either up or down) to the height you're standing at.
Shift+Clickng = Level the ground to where you're clicking.
Just trying to help :)

I find it easiest when I'm making roads/paths to start from the lowest point in a bit of terrain and walk along with the hoe a bit in front of me as I'm walking uphill to where I want to take it, that way I make a really smooth kind of groove in the ground with an easy slope to pull a cart along.

Also, if you find a bit of ground with a bump in the middle, you probably have stone underneath and want to mine it then re-flatten. If you get a chunk missing the ground when trying to level upwards, you need to fill it (and have a workbench nearby, which can be annoying). That's why I tend to go from low to high with my paths. Easier to mine out a bump than try to fill an area you can't raise enough.