Publisher alternative in 2026

Libre didn't covert well at all for us. It changed color of our doc and graphics and overlapped the articles. It was a mess. Our articles are medical articles that are more that one page.

Libre is out, I am not starting over.

Today, March 24, 2025, I spoke with a supervisor at Microsoft Support about the Publisher discontinuation issue. There was no additional help, but was told to keep watching for updates as a lot could change over the next year and a half. HOWEVER, when I first checked this forum, I didn't pay attention to the above feedback option. Mohammad the supervisor directed me to it, said it goes to the engineers/designers, but my Publisher doesn't give the option of Feedback in the left hand column, just Account and Options at the bottom. He told me to open a new Publisher file, click File at the top left and open Feedback with the Windows key + F. That worked, the Feedback screen opened and I put in my feedback as a Suggestion, not a problem, etc. One thing the online support agent/customer service rep reiterated was that most of the features of Publisher would be available on Word, PowerPoint, or Designer. I asked if they were modifying those programs to add Publisher features. I said it didn't make much sense to change 3 programs instead keeping the one that did it all and that I'd have to decide which program was best to use with any new project (or modifying and old one for that matter). Time-wise and cost-wise, it doesn't make sense for the consumer. The only reason I kept Microsoft and purchased Office Professional in the first place over plain Office was for Publisher. Otherwise I can use Open Office or Google docs, sheets, and presentations, etc.

Microsoft insists that Word and Powerpoint (that is the funniest ones) will do what Publisher does, but that is an outright lie. I have a few standard envelopes that I use...saved in specific file names, and YOU CANNOT DO THAT IN WORD!!!! Any envelopes are one and done and not savable. I have church brochures, etc. and NONE OF THEM work with Word. I do not know what Microsoft's reasoning is behind this, but they certainly did not ask any actually users.

Well Ihave just tried converting PUB file to Word via PDF. What a @#$ mess that made. The resulting word file is nothing like the PUB file.

I trust that Microsoft will also reduce the price of their subscription on deleting one of four programs of the MS365 suite that I use (Word, Excel, Publisher, Outlook). I might add that I have several hundred, probably thousands of Publisher files that come October next year I will not be able to access.

In the words of the Australian Yellow Pages advertisement "NOT HAPPY JANE".

Currently looking for alternatives.

Diane

Late to the party ...

I just installed Office 2024 and discovered that Publisher is no longer included.

I do have a copy of Office 2016, which does included Publisher.

Can I install Publisher 2016 now that Office 2024 is already installed or do I have to uninstall Office 2024, installed Publisher 2016 (but none of the other 2016 apps) and then reinstall Office 2024?