Publisher alternative in 2026

Sophia, you summed up my thoughts perfectly. I am a church secretary, and I also have used Publisher for over 20 years to create weekly bulletins, flyers, letters and all my other publishing needs. I absolutely abhor Word, and hardly ever use it! Microsoft, please re-think this decision to discontinue Publisher! You have no other product that has the functionality and flexibility of Publisher.

I agree with you both 100%. I am a teacher and have used Publisher for over 20 years to create thousands of teaching resources. Like you, I abhor MS Word - it is fine for writing a letter, a thesis, or even a novel, but absolutely awful and completely counterintuitive for doing anything that incorporates both graphics and text. I am appalled that MS are abandoning all their Publisher users so casually.

In light of Microsoft’s decision to kill off Publisher without any regard for those of us who’ve been paying to use it successfully for many years, I’ve been considering replacing my Microsoft PC with an Apple Mac. I already have an Apple iPhone and iPad and they are so intuitive to use. However, the thing that has put me off Apple PCs (until MS announced their decision to abandon Publisher), was the fact Apple PCs cannot open or edit Publisher documents without using very clunky 3rd party workarounds. Therefore, I’ve stayed loyal to MS computers as I didn’t want to convert all my thousands of Publisher files to a format Apple could open. However, now MS are forcing me to convert all my Publisher files anyway, then I no longer have any reason to stay loyal to them and will be buying a Mac before they murder my beloved Publisher!

THANK YOU FOR THIS! Signed it.

Marge,

Canva has been the only option thus far for me. The rest have been a true joke. Even there dear word.

I have found a MS disc. Going to just ditch 365 and use the disc with a new email.

I do not think MS is listening to us at all nor do they care. If they did they leave it functional with no updates or a stand alone product.

They forget we can do all everyone on Google for free then (I wouldn't be totally happy), and canva then too. But, we have no use for them and their annual fee.

Marge,

I completely agree with your post! I am a church admin as well and we have over a decade of items on Publisher from bulletins, flyers, letters...pretty much everything we do. We don't use templates, everything is designed from scratch and Word just doesn't have the ease of use and flexibility that Publisher has. If we receive a file originally done in Word we ALWAYS convert it to Publisher because of this. If anyone has suggestions of other ways to protest Microsoft's plan to discontinue Publisher PLEASE let us know. I have an office full of coworkers who will join in! In the meantime, Microsoft please reconsider this plan!

Yes, I think this is right I’m afraid. Open each Publisher file and save as PDF. A bi time consuming.