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Intertwine Feature in InDesign

Learn how to use Paste Into to make InDesign objects appear intertwined.

People have been oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over the Intertwine feature in Adobe Illustrator, but I’ve been creating this same effect in InDesign for years! OK, I admit that it’s more straightforward in Illustrator, but this InDesign trick — first shown to me by our Editor in Chief, Mike Rankin, at The InDesign Conference — is so easy that anyone can do it.

First, here’s a before and after of what I’m talking about… see how the objects are not intertwined in the first image (they’re just stacked up), and then they are in the second?

Intertwine1

Here’s how you do this in InDesign:

First, zoom in on the section you’re working on:

Intertwine2

Then draw a rectangle over the part you want to “intertwine”:

Intertwine3

Now select the object in the back — in this case, the green circle— and copy it to the clipboard. Next, select the blank frame you just created and choose Edit > Paste Into:

Intertwine4

You can see that the Paste Into feature “pin registers” the object so that it lands in exactly the same place. (More on Paste Into here.)

Of course, you need to be careful not to move that frame, or else you can see how the trick is done:

Intertwine5

Obviously, grouping all the objects together would help.

Here’s the final result shown with Preview off, so you can see the three rectangles I made:

Intertwine6

This intertwine effect is surprisingly easy, and takes no more than a minute to accomplish!

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  1. Robin Williams
    November 10, 2023

    Hi David,

    I have a project that intertwine is perfect for.
    Your steps are straight forward and easy, but it didn’t work for me.
    Does intertwine in this way still work for ID 2024?

    Thanks!

    1. Robin Williams
      November 10, 2023

      Please disregard. I realized the text frame had auto-fit selected causing the issue. Thanks though.

  2. Black
    January 5, 2023

    Nice!

  3. Michele Nelson
    December 31, 2022

    This works in Affinity Publisher too!

  4. Michele Nelson
    December 31, 2022

    This is seriously cool. Thanks, David!