Publisher alternative in 2026

I only found out about this today! I am appalled. Like many others here I have been using Publisher for many, many years - lost count.

Before Office became cloud-based, Publisher was a standalone piece of software. All Microsoft needs to do is to offer Publisher as a standalone which we can download to our computers. I'm not interested in it being updated - most of the new things in Microsoft 365 are of no interest to me - it seems like changes are made for the sake of changes rather than being any use. If Word did what Publisher can do then we would all have been using it before this. The biggest bugbear (and mentioned already) is that you can only place photos where Word wants them placed. That's not DTP.

I doubt that Microsoft will listen to us. It would be great if they did.

This is all very distressing. a Microsoft Chat lady told me my MS 365 version will still be functional. but that is not how I read the email from microsoft, which says, "Action Recommended: Before 01/10/2026, 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.". Elsewhere, I read that a stand-alone 2021 version will still work.

Whoever decided to discontinue Publisher has obviously has never tried to do a substantial newsletter or document that has many images in MS Word. Word is a good program for standard documents, but not things like Newsletters etc. Also Word and Powerpoint have limited page sizes, so they are no good for creating actual size PDF files.

Suggesting Canva, MS Create or MS Design is not an option as they do not allow large sizes and are messy, fluffy programs for arty people. I do not do "pretty" stuff, I like creating functional, relatively straightforward documents and signs.

I don't have as many files, but I agree with all you said!

Hi - Once Microsoft retires Publisher, won't the program work any more on my PC?