Microsoft Publisher is going away: what to do with your PUB files
Microsoft Publisher reaches end of life on October 13, 2026. This is not the usual "no more updates" retirement: if you use Publisher through a Microsoft 365 subscription, the application will stop opening and editing PUB files altogether after that date. Every newsletter, brochure, flyer, and menu saved as a PUB file becomes unreadable on those machines, and no other Microsoft application can open the format. Here is what exactly stops working and how to keep your files usable.
What is happening to Microsoft Publisher?
Microsoft announced that Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026. What that means depends on how you got Publisher:
- Microsoft 365 subscription: Publisher stops working entirely. After October 13, 2026 you can no longer open or edit PUB files with it.
- Perpetual license (Publisher 2016, 2019, or 2021): the program keeps running, but receives no security updates or support, so it is a stopgap rather than a plan.
There is no successor application. The PUB format is proprietary, Word and PowerPoint do not open it, and Microsoft is not migrating the format anywhere. Microsoft's own recommendation is to convert Publisher files to other formats, PDF first among them, before the deadline.
Why PDF is the right format for your finished publications
Most Publisher documents are finished pieces: newsletters that went out years ago, brochures for past events, menus, certificates, price lists. You don't need to edit them again, you need to be able to open, print, and share them. That is exactly what PDF is for. It preserves the page layout, fonts, and images precisely, it opens on every computer and phone made in the last two decades, and it is the format archives and businesses already rely on for long-term storage.
Converting a publication to PDF freezes it the way Publisher last rendered it. Nothing shifts, nothing gets re-flowed, and nobody needs a Publisher license to look at it.
How to convert a Publisher file to PDF online for free
Our free Publisher to PDF converter renders PUB files in the cloud, so it works even if you have never had Publisher installed:
- Upload the PUB file, or drag and drop it onto the page.
- The converter turns it into a PDF in seconds, keeping the layout, fonts, and images exactly as Publisher would print them.
- Download the PDF and store it wherever your documents live.
Files travel over an encrypted SSL connection and are permanently deleted from our servers after 3 hours. Once converted, the result is a normal PDF, so you can also compress it, merge several publications into one file, or add a password.
What about publications you still edit?
PDF solves the archive, but not the documents you rework every month. For those you need a replacement tool:
- Microsoft Word or PowerPoint: Microsoft's suggested path for simple layouts like flyers and newsletters. Included with Microsoft 365.
- Affinity Publisher: a one-time purchase and the closest like-for-like desktop publishing replacement.
- Adobe InDesign: the industry standard for print layout, subscription-based.
- Canva: browser-based and template-driven, the easiest option for non-designers.
- Scribus: free and open-source desktop publishing.
The catch: none of these opens PUB files reliably. Scribus and LibreOffice Draw can partially import some documents, but fonts, text flow, and graphics often shift. In practice most people do two things: convert the whole archive to PDF now, and recreate the handful of documents that still change regularly in the new tool, using the PDF as the visual reference.
Convert your files while the format is still supported
The PUB format only gets harder to open from here. Machines get replaced, perpetual licenses get lost, and the number of computers that can render a PUB file shrinks every year. Converting your publications to PDF takes a few seconds per file and removes the deadline from your calendar entirely.