With Publisher leaving Microsoft 365 in October 2026, many people need a new program for their
newsletters, flyers and cards. Whichever you choose, the old .pub files need to come along, and
almost no other program opens them. Converting them first solves that.
What the alternatives can open
| Program | Opens .pub? | Best way to bring files over |
|---|---|---|
| Word or PowerPoint | No | PDF, opened in Word (File > Open) |
| LibreOffice Draw (open-source) | Yes, with the same import used here | ODG, or the .pub itself |
| Scribus (open-source) | No | PDF (Scribus imports PDF pages) |
| Canva (online) | No | PDF (Canva imports PDFs as designs) |
| Affinity Publisher | No |
Microsoft suggests Word and PowerPoint for most of what Publisher was used for. LibreOffice Draw is the closest match for editing old publications as they are: pages with text boxes, shapes and pictures that you can move around at will.
Converting your publications first
- Put the folders with your
.pubfiles in a ZIP and upload it here. - Choose ODG to keep editing in LibreOffice Draw, PDF for the other programs, or Everything to have both, plus page pictures and the photos and logos inside.
- Keep the download next to the originals.
The ODG keeps the original font names, so on a computer with those fonts LibreOffice Draw shows them. The PDF embeds the fonts it was made with.
Things to know before you switch
Fonts that are not available here are replaced during the conversion; Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri and Cambria keep their letter widths, other fonts may not. The report shows every font of every file and marks the files to compare with the original. Do this while Publisher still runs somewhere, so you can fix anything that matters.
Templates are publications too: convert your favourite ones and rebuild them once in the new program instead of recreating them from memory.
More about what this tool reads and writes: Publisher File Converter.