Publisher alternative in 2026

@Microsoft (because the moderator isn't allowing responses to their post)

I don't think Microsoft truly understands how Publisher is a STAPLE for small businesses, professionals, and students around the world. To completely eliminate a software, likely based on some BS "low usage high cost" statistics, Microsoft will continue to upset up to millions of people when it is unplugged, especially without having a software [/suggestion] in place which is compatible with .pub/x files.

It is absolutely absurd.

Microsoft offers NO solutions for people who have complex graphics and how to use these files elsewhere. Microsoft is simply telling everyone "well I guess you're SOL because LOL and good luck having to learn a new software that you have to also pay for, and rebuild your branded graphics from the bones up elsewhere." (LOLing all the way to the bank while, I guarantee you the price of Office365 will not go down.)

Joke's on us productive peons.

As an alternative to Publisher, I have started to investigate Libre Office which imports publisher files.

Some functionality seems to be missing but I am still investigating. Text wrapping etc does not seem to work, even though there are videos and instructions on how to do it.

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/writer/

It is quite a comprehensive program, and is free (for the moment)

I am leaning towards using Adobe in the place of Publisher. Can anyone advise if Adobe Express or Adobe InDesign would be useful? If yes, which one would be the better option? Thank you

Amanda,

When the time comes, that publisher is no more, I would suggest printing your publisher documents to pdfs. If you do this, these are most likely file types that can be broken down into parts like images and text boxes. If you save them as jpegs, pngs or the like, you are creating an image that can't be separated again.

When you have 20+ years of historical documents that number into the 1,000's printing to PDF gains you nothing because you can't update or fix PDF, conversion errors (fonts etc.). PowerPoint kind of works but have to deal with the fixed margins. Imagine creating a booklet 36 pages (8.5"x 5" finished) that does not have text box continued from etc. full bleed to the printable edge, footers etc....

I agree. When I started using Publisher (about 25 years ago) I had to learn how to use it on my own. Many of the built-in features could not produce what I wanted, but I learned many work-arounds by trial and error. My personal opinion is the staff that came in to support it after it was first released didn't know how to use it either. It has features that are not available anywhere else to my knowledge. It is a valuable tool.