Hi Arlis Sturdy,

Microsoft has confirmed that Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026, so converting important .pub files now is a sensible step to ensure they remain usable long‑term for viewing, printing, and sharing.

For a large library like yours, the practical options are:

Best option overall (bulk conversion)

Use Microsoft’s free PowerShell script (Convert‑PubFileToPDF.ps1). This script is designed specifically for bulk scenarios like this. It can scan a folder (including subfolders) and convert large numbers of .pub files to PDF with far less manual effort. Publisher still needs to be installed on the machine, but the script handles most of the repetitive work.

You don’t need to be a PowerShell expert to use Microsoft’s conversion script. It’s already written and provided by Microsoft, and in most cases you simply point it at a folder containing your .pub files and let it run. You’re not writing code from scratch, and Publisher itself is still used for the conversion, which helps preserve layout and formatting.

The script is designed for large collections and can process many files at once, including those in subfolders. It also continues running if a few files fail, making it far more practical than opening each publication manually. Microsoft specifically recommends this approach as the supported way to bulk‑convert Publisher files ahead of its retirement in October 2026.

For reference: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026

If you do not want to use PowerShell

The alternative is to open each file in Publisher and export it to PDF manually. This is usually only practical for a small number of files, not thousands.

This approach generally works very well and usually preserves the layout, fonts, and graphics accurately. However, with more than 2,000 .pub files, doing this one by one would be extremely time‑consuming and could take many hours of repetitive work.

Best format to preserve appearance

PDF is the most reliable format for preserving the original layout and design and is what Microsoft recommends for long‑term access.

Fully editable bulk migration

Unfortunately, there is no simple Microsoft tool that can bulk‑convert .pub files into fully editable Word documents while keeping complex layouts intact. Content can often be reused later, but some reformatting is typically required.

For 2,000+ files, starting with Microsoft’s free PowerShell script is the most practical and supported bulk option. If the main goal is reliable long‑term access, PDF is the best target format.

If anything is unclear or you need assistance as you work through the conversion, feel free to let me know and we can take a look.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

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I faced a similar situation, needing to convert over 500 files made in Publisher to PDF before the October deadline.

What I did was download a tool called "Pub to PDF" developed by a Ryan Mosberger. This small zipped up executable app enabled me to convert an entire folder of Publisher files with a single click. You have to have a licensed version of Publisher available on your system as it processes through it. It converted everything within five minutes or so.

Arlis — you asked for easy, twice, and what came back was PowerShell. Arcata Presbyterian's comment above is the honest verdict on that: six hours and "some serious battles with my computer's file structure", from someone who says they have coding familiarity.

The reason everyone points at that script is sound, though. It works by driving Publisher itself, so Publisher renders its own files and the PDFs come out exactly right. Nothing that reads .pub from the outside matches that fidelity.

So I wrote something that does the same job as a double-click. Same method underneath — it opens each file in your installed copy of Publisher and exports via ExportAsFixedFormat — but with no execution policy to change, no working directory to get right, and no script path to find. You pick a folder, it walks the sub-folders, and writes a PDF for every .pub file into a new PDF-Backup folder, alongside a CSV log of what worked and what didn't.

Two things matter at 2,000 files: it opens your originals read-only so they're never modified, and it skips anything it has already converted. So if it stops on a damaged file, you move that one aside and run it again rather than starting over.

https://pubfilerescue.com

Free, no sign-up, nothing uploaded anywhere. There's a .bas macro version in the same download for machines where IT blocks script files, which is often the situation in a church or school office.

I wrote it, so treat that as disclosed. Whichever route you take, do it before 1 October — every one of these depends on Publisher still being installed.

So my wife as well has years and years and hundreds of Publisher files. But just so happens I'm an M365 Engineer so I was able to take the Microsoft example script where they are converting .pub to .pdf and add to it the ability to also convert to .rtf and .docx. It's a bit crude but it worked and was a interesting 4 hr. project this evening. Script is here:

<#

Convert-PubFileToRTFModal.ps1

.SYNOPSIS

Converts .pub → .pdf (Publisher) → .rtf + .docx (Word)

with automatic Publisher kill‑and‑restart when modal dialogs appear.

.DESCRIPTION

This version:

  • Removes ALL UIAutomation dialog handling

  • Detects modal dialog COM lock

  • Kills Publisher immediately when locked

  • Restarts Publisher for each retry

  • Retries each file once

  • Skips files that remain locked

.EXAMPLES

  Run with the following filters from PowerShell Command Line:

If needed set proper execution policies:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

.EXAMPLE

./Convert-PubFileToRTFModal.ps1 -Filter "C:\Documents\MyFile.pub"

Converts the specified Publisher file to PDF to RTF to WORD format.

.EXAMPLE

./Convert-PubFileToRTFModal.ps1 -Filter "*.pub"

Converts all Publisher files in the current directory to PDF to RTF to WORD format.

.EXAMPLE

./Convert-PubFileToRTFModal.ps1 -Filter "*.pub" -Recurse

Converts all Publisher files in the current directory and all subdirectories to PDF to RTF to WORD format.

KMO 8/20/2026 used Microsoft .PUB to .PDF version as base:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/3e67cd40-2334-4c46-a0c9-30bd43eebb3c/Convert-PubFileToPDF.ps1

Script was only utilized with Windows 11 Home Edition

#>

param(

[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]

[string]$Filter,

[switch]$Recurse

)

function Kill-Publisher {

Write-Warning "Killing all Publisher processes..."

Get-Process -Name "MSPUB" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1

}

function Start-Publisher {

try { return (New-Object -ComObject Publisher.Application) }

catch {

    Write-Warning "Publisher cannot start."

    return $null

}

}

function Start-Word {

try { return (New-Object -ComObject Word.Application) }

catch {

    Write-Warning "Word cannot start."

    return $null

}

}

function Export-PubToPdf {

param(

    [string]$PubPath,

    [string]$PdfPath

)

$app = Start-Publisher

if (-not $app) { return $false }

try {

    $doc = $app.Open($PubPath)

}

catch {

    Write-Warning "Open() failed for: $PubPath  -> $_"

    Kill-Publisher

    return $false

}

if (-not $doc) {

    Write-Warning "Publisher returned null document: $PubPath"

    Kill-Publisher

    return $false

}

try {

    $doc.ExportAsFixedFormat(

        [Microsoft.Office.Interop.Publisher.PbFixedFormatType]::pbFixedFormatTypePDF,

        $PdfPath

    )

    Write-Output "Saved PDF: $PdfPath"

}

catch {

    Write-Warning "PDF export failed for: $PubPath  -> $_"

    Kill-Publisher

    return $false

}

try { $doc.Close() } catch { Kill-Publisher }

try { $app.Quit() } catch { Kill-Publisher }

return $true

}

function Convert-PdfToRtfDocx {

param(

    [string]$PdfPath,

    [string]$RtfPath,

    [string]$DocxPath

)

if (-not (Test-Path $PdfPath)) {

    Write-Warning "PDF not found for Word conversion: $PdfPath"

    return $false

}

$word = Start-Word

if (-not $word) { return $false }

$word.Visible = $false

try {

    $doc = $word.Documents.Open($PdfPath)

}

catch {

    Write-Warning "Word cannot open PDF: $PdfPath  -> $_"

    try { $word.Quit() } catch {}

    return $false

}

if (-not $doc) {

    Write-Warning "Word returned null document for: $PdfPath"

    try { $word.Quit() } catch {}

    return $false

}

$ok = $true

try {

    $doc.SaveAs([ref]$RtfPath, [ref][int][Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdSaveFormat]::wdFormatRTF)

    Write-Output "Saved RTF: $RtfPath"

}

catch {

    Write-Warning "RTF save failed for: $PdfPath  -> $_"

    $ok = $false

}

try {

    $doc.SaveAs([ref]$DocxPath, [ref][int][Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdSaveFormat]::wdFormatXMLDocument)

    Write-Output "Saved DOCX: $DocxPath"

}

catch {

    Write-Warning "DOCX save failed for: $PdfPath  -> $_"

    $ok = $false

}

try { $doc.Close() } catch {}

try { $word.Quit() } catch {}

return $ok

}

function Convert-OneFile {

param([string]$PubPath)

$base = [System.IO.Path]::Combine(

    [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($PubPath),

    [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($PubPath)

)

$pdf  = "$base.pdf"

$rtf  = "$base.rtf"

$docx = "$base.docx"

Write-Output "Converting: $PubPath"

# --- FIRST ATTEMPT ---

if (Export-PubToPdf -PubPath $PubPath -PdfPath $pdf) {

    if (Convert-PdfToRtfDocx -PdfPath $pdf -RtfPath $rtf -DocxPath $docx) {

        return $true

    }

}

Write-Warning "First attempt failed. Retrying with clean Publisher restart..."

Kill-Publisher

# --- SECOND ATTEMPT ---

if (Export-PubToPdf -PubPath $PubPath -PdfPath $pdf) {

    if (Convert-PdfToRtfDocx -PdfPath $pdf -RtfPath $rtf -DocxPath $docx) {

        return $true

    }

}

Write-Warning "Skipping file (Publisher remained locked): $PubPath"

return $false

}

Validate filter

if (-not ($Filter -like "*.pub")) {

Write-Warning "Filter must specify .pub files."

exit 1

}

$files = Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse:$Recurse -Filter $Filter

if (-not $files) {

Write-Warning "No .pub files found."

exit 1

}

$success = 0

$fail = 0

foreach ($file in $files) {

if (Convert-OneFile -PubPath $file.FullName) { $success++ }

else { $fail++ }

}

Write-Output "Completed: $success succeeded, $fail failed."