Publisher alternative in 2026

I use MS Publisher weekly for a church newsletter. I tried importing into MSWord format, and lost all formatting! I use MS Word almost daily also, and there are just some projects that MS Word doesn't cope with well.

There's no scratch area for information I need to keep, but not necessarily use for a particular newsletter. An A4 bookfold with two columns on most pages just doesn't play nicely in MS Word, then add a graphic or two, and it's a recipe for throwing your computer through the nearest window!

I've spent ages trying to get MS Word to create something along the lines of what I've been doing regularly since Office XP days (and prior to XP less frequently). I've purchased stand alone versions of Publisher when the Office suite didn't include it.

I'm not even going to attempt using MS PowerPoint to create my newsletter - I can't even consider how that came to be a suggested alternative.

I have hundreds and hundreds of MS Publisher files saved, saving them in PDF is no help as I won't be able to edit them when needed. I don't want to LOOK at my files, I want to USE them.

Also, I have no interest in the AI element that keeps popping up at me.

Agree, it will devalue it, I would have no reason to pay for it. I would however, pay for Publisher stand alone.

My newsletter became a mess. It will take a week to clean it up in Canva. But I don't think I will have a choice now.

Yes, agree. Discontinuing this is a BIG mistake. InDesign is not affordable, and other options are not really an option.

Please reconsider.

And what are those options, because nothing is smoothly transferring publisher documents, and frankly, starting over fresh upsetting me.