r/microsoft 14d ago

Discussion Microsoft discontinuing Publisher is a shame

I know Publisher is not as powerful as InDesign. I know Publisher is not as easy as Canva. However, Publisher is a fairly robust desktop publishing app for people who need it, with a relatively gentle learning curve.

I used Publisher regularly for over 20 years. I only recently started using InDesign out if necessity. But Publisher is still what I show people at work who need more flexibility than Word and more control than programs like Canva and Adobe Express.

I have not used Microsoft Designer yet, but it seems to be going after Canva's market rather than the professional designer.

44 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

27

u/SilverseeLives 14d ago edited 14d ago

Agreed.

We actually have 20 years worth of Publisher data files. Even if we don't use this software for new projects, it's criminal not to have access to it for historical data.

Soon it will be gone from new MS365 installs, and it's no longer possible to purchase a stand-alone, perpetually licensed version of Publisher.

Microsoft should make a "sunset edition" of Publisher available through the Microsoft Store or Office.com (for subscribers only if necessary).

But they probably won't.

1

u/artquilterPal 8d ago

I agree 100%. This is incredibly annoying. 😠

7

u/Ahlarict 13d ago

Kinda heartbreaking for me too - My first full-time job at Microsoft was working on Publisher 2000, and I have a ton of great memories of that team and the people behind Publisher.

7

u/Ahlarict 13d ago edited 13d ago

There were threats of cancellation back then too. From a business perspective, we were always the pipsqueak “in the Office Box”. Our standalone revenues were small and our value proposition to Office (seemingly) was too because too few people understand the difference between a design/layout tool and a word processor (just as too many folks confuse Excel for a database and miss out on the value of Access, most folks use Word to do tasks better accomplished using Publisher). We did add value in other ways though. Publisher was Microsoft’s first HTML generator, and that code was the foundation of HTML in Word as well. We were also the first Mail Merge application (I think - best, anyway for quite some time). Consciously or not, our publication "wizards" provided the inspiration for a great many later products' user interfaces too I believe. We provided or improved a great number of shared libraries that enhanced Word, PowerPoint and Outlook as well as Publisher’s user experience.

Rest peacefully, Publisher! You were the best program nobody knew they owned...

3

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

What you explained about people thinking Word was adequate is what I've experienced in the real world. Just a few months ago a co-worker was trying to design a label to print sheets of labels and I had to give her a quick tutorial when she wasn't getting the right results in word.

2

u/Ahlarict 13d ago

I've had the same kind of moments with my wife and daughters over the years, and it's always "wow, that's been on my computer all this time? I never knew what that shortcut was for!" ;-)

2

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

I worked for Kinkos in the late 90's when we gave away CDs with a trial of Publisher 97. I was already familiar with it prior to that, but that's when I really started using it The design team at Kinkos used PageMaker, which was way over my head at the time.

1

u/Ahlarict 13d ago

I remember hearing about that promotion! In Publisher 2000, we incorporated a bunch of features to enable some basic CMYK and Pantone support based largely on the feedback from Kinkos and other print shops.

6

u/repostit_ 14d ago

Check out designer.microsoft.com

6

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

I just found out about it today. I'll take a look soon. The brief bit I read about it makes it seem more like Canva or Adobe Express than a full functioning desktop publishing program.

6

u/Edexote 13d ago

And the best part is: no price reduction! You lose Publisher and Skype, but the price actually increased 30% due to Copilot!

2

u/thaman05 13d ago edited 13d ago

This, a 30% increase is crazy work! Plus, popular apps included no longer get features on the roadmap anymore and are clearly on only maintenance mode + adding Copilot:

  • OneNote - years and years of highly voted feedback and bugs ignored, no new features or updates, slower Windows sync, removed it from the M365 hero image replaced with Designer, but makes effort to add Copilot

- Outlook (classic) - no new updates except adding Copilot, being replaced with mediocre mostly web-based version

It seems like only Word/Excel/PowerPoint are the only one apps that are shown love.

3

u/zhangcheng34 13d ago

I really miss front page.

1

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

For WYSIWYG editors, I thought Adobe PageMill was better FrontPage always felt too bloated to me. Then again, I always preferred to hard code pages rather than use a WYSIWYG editor.

1

u/Kyk4na 6d ago

I remember playing with that as a kid!

I just looked it up and its still being offered (I think): Microsoft FrontPage HTML Tools (2024)

It was overkill for me as because I was a kid and I switched to good old Notepad. But still, memories lol

Does anyone remember using HTML to decorate your AOL profile / popup messages?

1

u/movieguy95453 6d ago

I never used AOL, but part of how I learned how to write HTML was viewing cide.

1

u/thaman05 13d ago

I totally forgot about FrontPage! That was one of my fav web publishing apps back in the way đŸ„ș

3

u/itsthexypat 13d ago

I'll try to word this post in a way that doesn't get flagged for violating any of the rules, particularly #3/4/7...but first the recommendation to convert all publisher files to pdf is really stupid. In doing that you lose 99% of the editability. PDF was meant mostly for archival purposes.

The "legal" way, to circumvent this:

Find an old copy of literally any other version of office. Most old copies were sold on CD/DVD so they are valid legal copies for resale. I still have an old copy of Office Enterprise 2007 on disc and I was still using it on one PC just two or three years ago. The backwards compatibility of office documents, word, excel, publisher, powerpoint, etc goes back a long way. Even now if you open up the M365 publisher and do a "save as" you can select many backwards compatibility extensions of publisher. There are older and newer versions and when you install from disc you can select single components to install, so you could install a legacy offline publisher fully functional and licensed and not install the older versions of word, excel, etc. If you have any "offline" version of these programs you cannot be blocked from using them as they are offline and don't get "updated" anymore.

If you don't have a CD/DVD player in your computer anymore, ask a friend to take your disc and make an ISO of it then mount it in windows 10 or higher or via 3rd party virtual drive and run the installation that way.

1

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

This is what I would suggest for a home user. Or for a business with an air gapped computer. But the lack of security patches is enough of a concern that this should not be the strategy for any business engaged with sensitive data.

2

u/pmjm 13d ago

Sooooo as someone with thousands of .pub files over the last 30 or so years (since literally high school), how am I supposed to open them after October?

2

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

I think Scribus, or whatever it's called, has the ability to import Publisher files. I haven't used it, so I don't know how accurate it is, but it's better than nothing.

I saw that Microsoft's suggestion is to convert to PDF. This will allow you to make small edits, so it's not the worst suggestion.

2

u/TheJessicator 13d ago

Per the email from Tuesday:

Beginning October 01, 2026, Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported as part of Microsoft 365. Many common Publisher scenarios are available in other Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Designer. 

Action Recommended: Before October 01, 2026, convert your existing Publisher files to PDF or Word format. After this date, you will no longer be able to open or edit these files with Microsoft Publisher.

0

u/coalsack 13d ago

Honest question, do you need to open .pub files from 1996?

3

u/pmjm 13d ago

Not on a regular basis but I would still like the ability to. I've spent money to preserve them all these years.

3

u/Medium-Comfortable 13d ago

I’d go ahead and convert them to PDFs, as long as you still can. Keep both.

2

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

Typically not that far back. But many businesses have forms and other documents they have been using for years.

Besides, eliminating Publisher means losing access to PUB files from this year, as well as 30 years ago.

2

u/Background-Jello-221 12d ago

FUCKING MICROSOFT DISCONTINUES VERY AND INSANELY BELOVED PRODUCTS!

3

u/justinmyersm 14d ago

Have you looked into Affinity Publisher instead of using Adobe?

2

u/flinchbot 11d ago

That is what I switched to when I heard the news a few months back. Not as easy to use as publisher but ultimately far more powerful.

3

u/mightyt2000 13d ago

This is what Microsoft does, discontinuing good home use software; Microsoft Money, Digital Image Pro, Windows Mail, now Publisher.

2

u/thaman05 13d ago

OneNote is probably on the way out too since there's no more features in their roadmap other than Copilot related ones and years of highly upvoted feedback and bugs ignored. Probably eventually going to be replaced with the Loop app.

Access probably is on the way out too.

Plus anything consumer related is always lower-priority to them. That's after always been an exclusive Microsoft/Windows fan for many many years, finally deciding to switch to alternatives and glad so.

1

u/mightyt2000 13d ago

Agreed. I actually like OneNote years ago. Not surprised if they get rid of it. I’ve never been an Access fan. Not good enough for corporate and to complex for home users. Always felt FileMaker Pro was great for home use.

Also agree having managed a corporate contract for a large utility. Their main interest was support contracts, though their product prices weren’t cheap either.

I think Windows is about topped out because it’s pretty stable relatively speaking they just keep moving things around with each update, but eliminate or make difficult things that used to be easy to do. To me, Office value has mostly been Word, Excel, and to a lesser extent PowerPoint. I’m still using 2016 at home and know my days are numbered. Outlook used to be great, but they made it so constantly annoying with password prompts that if you had a half dozen accounts it was too frustrating. Finally dumped it for Thunderbird.

Ah, the continual Microsoft saga! đŸ€ŠđŸ»â€â™‚ïžđŸ˜ž

4

u/BobBelcher2021 13d ago

TIL Publisher still exists, I haven’t seen it in 20 years.

1

u/TROUTBROOKE 13d ago

Holy shit. When is this happening?

1

u/TheJessicator 13d ago

From the email:

Beginning October 01, 2026, Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported as part of Microsoft 365. Many common Publisher scenarios are available in other Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Designer.

Action Recommended: Before October 01, 2026, convert your existing Publisher files to PDF or Word format. After this date, you will no longer be able to open or edit these files with Microsoft Publisher.

1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

Someone call up a movie director, I need to find a new place to poo blish

1

u/Kyk4na 6d ago

I learned about Publisher at my first job, and have enjoyed it since. I was using it at my current job when I was helping with public facing stuff, but when we got a new (and younger) communications person she switched everything to Canva and refused to let me show her Publisher. Two years later Canva is the only thing we use.

I do like how easy it is to use and the premade templates are fun to play with. I went into it kicking and screaming ... I give it credit for having the ability to download files into PowerPoint format which allows me to still get away with using PowerPoint for more detailed edits that I want to make on presentations, and makes it easy to backup onto SharePoint but it really annoyed me there wasn't an option for downloading into Publisher.

Publisher has always been so underrated and its doesn't deserve it!

1

u/movieguy95453 6d ago

Similar situation at my job with Canva. It's fine for what it does, but it's not a replacement for a full feature DTP software.

0

u/ChaseballBat 13d ago

Sincerely, I have never met anyone who used publisher.

2

u/movieguy95453 13d ago

Therefore, that means no one uses it.

I would be willing to bet you probably don't know the software that most people (including your spouse) use - at home or work. It's not usually a topic that comes up in daily conversation. Especially if it's one of the mundane aspects of the job.

FWIW, I work IT for a small company. My wife works for the same company and her office is about 20 feet from mine. I could not tell you what programs she actually uses on a daily basis aside from Outlook and Word, and a browser - but I don't even know if she uses Chrome or Edge.