Why is Publisher being phased out, and what is Microsoft replacing it with? Will Microsoft 365 be cheaper since they are phasing out the program?

I also have used Publisher for decades. Trying to recreate things in Word is not so straightforward. Blank templates available in Publisher do not seem to be found in word. Pasting jpegs and maneuvering them is clumsy. There are no clear margin guides for making a quarter fold greeting card so centering work is difficult. To arbitrarily take away a useful tool on what is short notice is tone deaf to those of us who have purchased and used it for so long. Will you make it possible to open Publisher files in word or other Office programs? Will you add blank template Accessibility to Word? I am very upset at the decision to just discontinue and remove Publisher. If you were going to leave it as is with no further improvements, that would be fine. But to arbitrarily take it away after decades and make all my work inaccessible is unfair and unfeeling. Shame on your lack of concern for loyal customers. I look forward to a more reasonable transition; not just a "too bad you're screwed" email like I got informing me of this change. You can do better.

I have used Publisher since the app saw daylight.

To say that power point and word will cover it maybe true in a overall perspective. But for me as a user its not. The big advanteges is that you have a desktop to lay things beside the project you are working on. As you do when you are scrapbooking. And the ability to have a sheet of paper to put things on, as you would if you used applications in real life is crucial to me. I frequently create flyers and other things that are giong to be printed and that is not availble in Word or Powerpoint. Sometimes I use all the programs in one piece and publisher puts it all together. If you can expand Word or/and Powerpoint to do that in a click to choose desktop for creating layout to print this would solve the problem for me. Im not a user of the templates as much as I use the desktop possibilites. I hope you solve this.

This is dreadful news about Publisher being discontinued. It will cause all sorts of problems for individuals and organisations. I am very disappointed in you. Please do reconsider - you have a responsibility to your clients as an (almost) monopoly.

I am extra cross, because publisher is already removed from my newly renewed sub. I now have to risk losing my other MS stuff to reinstall, or change my MS sub. I do not trust that deleting and re-installing will work, and it looks complicated. There seems to be no way to complain directly. I will definitely be changing to a lesser version of Office in 2026, but I am paying for publisher this year and don't have it. This has already wasted much time to try to find answers.

I love Publisher. I am enough of a power user to probably use Word and PowerPoint in its place but the functionality of placing graphics will not be the same. Also, I will have to put text boxes all over the place. Publisher does so much to enhance my work. The templates are to die for. Please, don't take this away. You can leave the latest copy in my MS Office suite, not change it anymore and I would be so happy with that.