Microsoft Publisher discontinued: what to do with your old .pub files

What Microsoft discontinued, and who can still open .pub files

Microsoft’s own notice says: “In October 2026, Microsoft Publisher will reach its end of life. After that time, it will no longer be included in Microsoft 365 and existing on-premises suites will no longer be supported” (Microsoft Support). The notice is written in the future tense, and we have not confirmed that the removal has reached every computer. Both October dates in it have now passed on the calendar. What each group can still do, according to Microsoft:

Sources: Microsoft’s support article and Ending Support in 2026. The full timeline is on our Publisher end of life page. In an organisation both groups are usually present: the director’s old PC may have a perpetual copy while the office laptops run Microsoft 365. Plan for the group that can no longer open the files.

The four-stage checklist for an organisation

Each stage ends with a “done when” line. Do not start the next stage until the line is true.

Stage 1: Find every .pub file

1. Search each shared drive, cloud folder and office computer for files ending in .pub. Search for upper-case endings too (.PUB).
2. Check places people forget: old laptops in a cupboard, USB sticks and external drives, and email attachments (search your mailbox for “.pub”).
3. Write a simple list: file name, where it was found, last changed date, and who made it.
4. Mark the files someone still edits (the monthly newsletter, the event flyer) and the ones nobody touches. The first group needs an editable route; the second only needs a safe copy.
5. Copy everything into one new folder on a drive that is backed up. Work from that copy.

Done when: you have one list with a count, one backed-up folder holding a copy of every file, and each file marked “still edited” or “archive only”.

Stage 2: Convert, by the route that fits your situation

The best route is the one that uses the program that made the file.

What we tested: in our test with one file (LibreOffice 26.2.6.3, a two-page .pub file), LibreOffice opened it, saved a PDF (about a second) and saved a Draw file (.odg); we did not open the .odg. Saving it as a Word document failed. The first page held Russian text, and on the rendered PDF page it came out garbled, so older files with non-Latin text can come out garbled; ours did. A bulk script ran on two copies of the sample file on Linux only (the Windows script under PowerShell 7.6.9 on Linux); we did not run anything on Windows or a Mac. The LibreOffice download page now offers 26.8.2, newer than the version we tested. One file is not a study: open every result and compare it with what you remember of the original.

Done when: every file marked “still edited” has an editable copy that someone has checked, and every other file has a PDF that someone has opened and looked at page by page.

Stage 3: Archive three things per publication

For each publication, keep three files together:

• The original .pub. The source. Nothing else can fully replace it.
• A PDF to read and print. Microsoft’s own conversion route ends in a PDF, and LibreOffice’s help describes how to export one. A PDF is for reading, not editing.
• An ODG file as an extra, if you may want to edit later. We saved an .odg in our test but did not open it, so we cannot say how it looks. ODG is the format LibreOffice Draw saves in; LibreOffice’s Getting Started Guide 7.5 says Draw saves in .odg and does not list Word (.docx) among its formats. The Document Foundation says .pub files opened in LibreOffice can be saved in the OpenDocument Format.

Name folders so a stranger in ten years can find things. One pattern that works:

Publisher archive/
  2019 Parish newsletter - May/
    2019-05 Parish newsletter.pub
    2019-05 Parish newsletter.pdf
    2019-05 Parish newsletter.odg

Put the year first, keep the same name for all three files, and add a short text file or spreadsheet row saying what the publication is and who made it.

Done when: every publication has its own folder with the original and a PDF, an ODG exists for the ones you may edit, and a person other than you has found one file using only the folder names.

Stage 4: Keep the originals and name an owner

• Do not delete the .pub files after converting. A conversion can lose layout or text. The original is the only copy that can be converted again with a better tool later.
• Keep two copies in two places, for example the office drive and an external drive kept at another address.
• Name one person who owns the archive, and write down where it is. Put a yearly check in the calendar: open one file of each kind.
• Decide how long to keep things. Some records (minutes, accounts, school documents) may have retention rules from your diocese, school board or national law. We cannot tell you the periods; ask the body that sets them.

We make no claim about PDF/A or other archival standards here, because we have not verified them against an official page.

Done when: there are two copies in two places, one named owner, and a calendar reminder for the yearly check.

If you want to keep editing in a different program

Converting to a PDF protects the files; it does not give you a replacement for making new newsletters. Microsoft points to Word for newsletters and says many common Publisher jobs can already be done in Word and PowerPoint (see its support article). For other options, see Publisher alternatives.