As Microsoft Word and PowerPoint continually improve their feature sets, the two apps are slowly strangling one of Microsoft’s traditional Office apps: Microsoft Publisher.
Microsoft now says that Microsoft Publisher will disappear in October 2026, where the (ahem) “perpetual version” of Publisher will be discontinued — at least in terms of support. At that time, Publisher will also be removed from Microsoft 365 and subscribers will not be able to access it from that date forward.
If you’re a Publisher fan, Microsoft is throwing you a lifeline: You can download and use Publisher via M365 until the 2026 cutoff date. You can also buy Publisher. Even after the October 2026 date comes and goes, the perpetual version will still work, and you’ll be able to open and edit your Publisher files. But the app won’t be officially supported, so in the off chance that a vulnerability crops up, Microsoft won’t patch it. Microsoft won’t be adding any new features, either.
Why is Microsoft doing this? Its support page (thanks, Windows Latest) suggests an answer: Because Word and PowerPoint are doing everything Publisher does. Microsoft is now referring Publisher users to use Word for such projects as envelopes or letterhead, and either Word or PowerPoint for designing your own business cards.
Microsoft also recommends that Microsoft 365 subscribers convert their existing Publisher (.pub) files to some other format before the end-of-life date kicks in. To do so, Microsoft suggests a somewhat laborious process: Convert all Publisher files to PDFs by opening the file and then saving it in a .pdf format. You can then open the document in Word (or PowerPoint) and save it in the native format. The only problem? The layout may change.
Microsoft suggests creating a macro to do this if you have years’ worth of Publisher files.
And you just might. Wikipedia reports that Publisher was released in 1991, which means that the end-of-life date will be 35 years after it was first released, and later added to the Office 365/Microsoft 365 suite…where many people just used Word instead. RIP, Publisher. I hardly knew ye.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.