PubRescueWhy certificates are a good fit for Word
A certificate is a fixed design with a few lines of text that change: a decorative border, a seal or logo, a title like "Certificate of Achievement", and then the recipient's name, the reason, a date and one or two signature lines. That's exactly the kind of document our Word output handles best. The border, seal and background are kept as the page background, and every piece of text is an editable text box in the same place, with the same size and style.
Typical certificate files include:
- Student of the month, honor roll, perfect attendance and sports awards.
- Sunday school, confirmation, baptism and volunteer appreciation certificates.
- Training and course completion certificates for staff or members.
- Club and league awards, gift certificates and vouchers for small businesses.
How to edit a Publisher certificate without Publisher
- Upload the certificate .pub file above. If you have a folder of them (one per award type), drop the whole folder.
- Check the preview. Make sure the border, seal and text are where you expect.
- Download the Word file and open it in Word 2010 or newer, LibreOffice or Google Docs.
- Click the name and type the new recipient. Do the same for the date and award line.
- Print on certificate paper, or File > Save As > PDF to email it.
Save the edited file under a new name and keep one clean copy as your template for next year.
Making many certificates for an awards night
For a handful of awards, editing the name and printing each one is quick. For a whole class or team:
- Copy and edit. Make one copy of the Word file per award, change the name in each, print them all. Simple and reliable.
- Mail merge. Word's mail merge can fill names from a spreadsheet. Because the names in our Word file sit in text boxes, mail merge needs a little setup: insert the merge field inside the name text box. It works, but test with two or three names before printing a stack.
Print one test copy on plain paper first and hold it against your certificate paper, to check the margins and the border line up.
Layout issues to watch on certificates
- Script fonts. Names on certificates are often in a script or calligraphy font. If that font isn't on your computer, Word substitutes another one. Select the name and pick a script font you have, and check it still fits the line.
- Long names. Text boxes keep their original size. A longer name may need a slightly smaller font size to stay on one line.
- Borders and seals come from the page background, so they look right but can't be moved separately in Word.
- Landscape pages stay landscape. Check the print dialog uses the same orientation.
What to do with old certificates
Many offices have a folder with a .pub file for every certificate ever printed. You don't need Word versions of all of them. Convert the whole folder to PDF for the record (who received what, and when), and keep Word files only for the blank templates you'll reuse. Uploading the folder keeps its structure in the download. See bulk conversion and pricing: one-time plans start at $9 for up to 20 files.
What to expect
- Fonts are replaced with metric-compatible substitutes where the original isn't available, so spacing stays the same, but script and decorative fonts can look different.
- The Word file keeps the look: page background plus editable text boxes. It's not a reflowable document, which for a certificate is what you want.
- Very old certificates made in Publisher 98 or 2000 convert with lower accuracy; check the preview, and the PDF is your fallback.
More about the Word format on the Publisher to Word page.