Microsoft Publisher retirement: what to do with your .pub files

The key dates

• October 1, 2026: Publisher was removed from Microsoft 365. Subscribers no longer get it as part of their plan.
• October 13, 2026: support ended for Publisher 2021, the last standalone version. Older standalone versions were already out of support.

There is no newer version of Publisher and no announced replacement that opens .pub files. The format itself is not going anywhere on its own: the files on your drive are still there. What goes away is the software that opens them.

What stops working, and what doesn't

• Microsoft 365 subscribers can no longer count on having Publisher. New computers and fresh installs won't have it, so the next time someone in the office gets a new laptop, the .pub files stop opening for them.
• A copy installed from a one-time purchase (Publisher 2021 or older) keeps starting as before, but gets no more security updates or fixes. It will keep working only as long as that computer does.
• Your .pub files are unchanged. But Word, Pages, Google Docs and Canva can't open them, and the free tools that can read some .pub files often get multi-column layouts wrong.

In practice the problem shows up slowly: the one volunteer with Publisher retires, the office PC is replaced, and one day nobody can open last year's spring newsletter.

Your options

1. Keep an old Publisher install, offline

If you still have a working Publisher 2021 or older, you can keep using it on one machine for a while. Because it no longer gets security updates, treat it as a tool for opening and saving files, not something to use for email or browsing. It's also a single point of failure: when that computer dies, so does your access. Use the time to export what matters.

2. Convert to PDF for the archive

PDF is the right format for anything you only need to read, print or share: past bulletins, old newsletters, records, minutes, finished flyers. It opens on every device, prints as laid out, and will open in twenty years. See how PUB to PDF conversion works.

3. Convert to Word to keep editing

For documents you reuse with small changes (a weekly bulletin, a yearly flyer, award certificates), a Word file lets you keep editing without Publisher. Our Word files keep the page design as a background with the text in editable text boxes on top. Details on the Publisher to Word page.

4. Pick a new tool for new designs

For anything you design from now on, choose a tool that is still maintained: Word or Google Docs for simple documents, Canva for flyers and social posts, Affinity Publisher or Scribus for multi-page layouts. Our guide to Publisher alternatives compares them. None of them opens .pub files directly, so options 2 and 3 come first.

A step-by-step plan for an organization with an archive

1. Find every .pub file. Check the shared drive, the office PC, old laptops, USB sticks and the email accounts of whoever made the newsletter. In Windows File Explorer, searching for *.pub in a drive finds them all.
2. Copy them into one folder. Keep the existing subfolders (years, departments, events). Don't rename or reorganize yet; it's easier after conversion.
3. Zip the folder (right-click > Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows) or drag the folder straight onto the upload box above.
4. Check the previews. Every file gets a free preview. Files that deserve a closer look are marked Check layout.
5. Download everything as one ZIP. You get a PDF and a Word file for each .pub, in the same folders. Plans are one-time: $9 for up to 20 files, $29 for up to 500, $99 for up to 5000 with an invoice and a 30-day pass for several uploads. See bulk conversion.
6. Store the PDFs where everyone can find them, for example a shared "Archive" folder. Keep the original .pub files next to them; they cost nothing to keep.
7. Pick the handful of documents you produce regularly and turn their Word files into templates, or rebuild them in your new tool.
8. Tell people. A short note to staff or volunteers ("old newsletters are now PDFs in the Archive folder; use the Word template for the bulletin") saves a lot of questions.

What to expect from converted files

• Fonts that came with Microsoft Office are replaced with metric-compatible fonts (same character widths), so line breaks and page layout stay where they were, but the letters can look slightly different.
• The Word file keeps the look: each page is a background image with the text in editable text boxes on top. It is not a reflowable document where text runs from page to page.
• Very old files from Publisher 98 or 2000 convert with lower accuracy than newer ones. Check their previews before relying on them.

Previews of every page are free, so you can see exactly what you'll get before paying anything.

Don't wait for the last working copy

Nothing dramatic happens to your files on a given day. The risk is gradual: fewer and fewer computers can open them, and the people who knew where everything was move on. Converting an archive takes minutes. Doing it while someone still remembers what the files are is much easier than doing it in three years.