Microsoft Publisher stops working on 1 October.
If your weekly bulletin, newsletter or order of service is made in Publisher, you have about a month to get your files out and find something else to make them in. Here is exactly what to do — starting with a free tool that rescues every file you have.
The short version
Everything on this page, in five lines
- Microsoft Publisher is removed from Microsoft 365 on 1 October 2026. Standalone copies — Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 — reach end of support on 13 October 2026.
- After that date you cannot open or edit .pub files in Publisher. Microsoft's published advice is to convert your files to another format before 1 October 2026.
- For your existing files: export them all to PDF while Publisher still works. The free tool on this page does that in bulk, driving your own copy of Publisher so the layouts come out exactly right.
- For future editions: a PDF cannot be edited, so the template itself has to be rebuilt somewhere else. Churches and schools usually move to Canva, which is a layout tool like Publisher rather than a word processor.
- Microsoft suggests Word or PowerPoint as replacements. Both work for simple documents, but struggle with the multi-column layouts typical of a bulletin or newsletter.
What is actually happening
Microsoft is retiring Publisher, and says to convert your files first
Publisher is being removed from Microsoft 365 on 1 October 2026. Standalone copies bought outright (Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021) reach end of support on 13 October 2026. Microsoft's own guidance is direct:
“Convert your existing files to another format before 10/1/2026. After this date, you will no longer be able to open or edit these files in Microsoft Publisher.”
Microsoft Support — “Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026”
On the conversion tools people are now selling, Microsoft adds that they “vary in quality and capabilities, and Microsoft does not provide support for them.” Fair warning, and worth applying to this page too — which is why the tool below is free, runs on your own computer, and never sends your files anywhere.
Step one · free
Save every .pub file you own as a PDF
Do this first, and do it before October — because it uses your copy of Publisher to do the exporting, while you still have it. That matters: Publisher renders its own files perfectly, so the PDFs come out looking exactly like the originals. No third-party converter can promise that.
Point it at a folder, walk away, come back to a PDF of every publication in it — including everything in sub-folders. Hundreds of files is normal and fine.
PubFile Rescue
Free. Windows, with Publisher still installed.
Download the free tool How it worksThat should be downloading now. Unzip it and read READ ME FIRST — it takes two minutes and covers the bit where Windows warns you about downloaded scripts.
One thing worth knowing before you go: PDFs save your archive, but they can't be edited, so they don't help with next month's edition. That's the part I fix →
Your originals are never touched. Files are opened read-only; PDFs are written into a new PDF-Backup folder. It keeps a log of every file, skips anything it has already done if you run it twice, and carries on past damaged files instead of stopping. Includes a macro version for computers where IT blocks script files.
Step two · the part PDFs don't solve
You still have next month's newsletter to make
PDFs rescue your archive. They don't rescue your routine. Come November, someone still has to produce the bulletin — and the template it has been made from for the last fifteen years will not open anywhere.
Microsoft suggests rebuilding in Word or PowerPoint. For a two-column bulletin with a masthead, a service order and a photo that has to sit in the same place every week, that is a genuinely miserable job — and it usually lands on a volunteer who did not sign up to be a graphic designer.
So that is the part I do for you.
The service
I rebuild your template in Canva. Your volunteer just types in it.
Send me the Publisher file. I rebuild it as a proper editable Canva template — same layout, same fonts (or the closest good match), same masthead, same everything — so that whoever makes it each week opens Canva, changes the words, and prints it. Canva is free, works in a browser on any computer, and is free at the Pro tier for registered charities and non-profits.
- Your layout rebuilt properly, not a stock template with your name dropped in
- Text boxes, columns and image frames set up so nothing shifts when text is edited
- Handed over inside your own Canva account — you own it, not me
- A one-page printed guide for whoever makes it, written for a non-technical volunteer
- One round of changes after you have seen it
One publication — your weekly bulletin or your monthly newsletter.
- One template, fully rebuilt
- Volunteer guide included
- One round of changes
- Ready in 3 working days
Up to three publications — for example a bulletin, a newsletter and an order of service.
- Three templates, fully rebuilt
- Volunteer guide included
- One round of changes on each
- Help running the free tool across your whole archive
You pay after it is finished and you are happy with it. No deposit, no card details, nothing up front. I build it, you look at it, and if it is not right you do not pay. An invoice with an ABN follows once you say yes — payable by bank transfer, the way your treasurer already pays everyone else.
How the free tool works
It drives Publisher for you, on your own machine
Publisher has a built-in “export to PDF” command. Doing it by hand means opening every file, clicking through the menu, choosing a filename and repeating — which is fine for five files and unbearable for five hundred. The tool does exactly what you would do by hand, just without you sitting there.
Nothing is uploaded. Nothing leaves your computer. There is no account, no sign-up and no email address required — the download is a plain zip file. It only works while Publisher is still installed and working, which is the whole reason to run it now rather than in November.
If your workplace blocks script files, the zip also contains a macro version you import into Publisher directly. Both are plain readable text — anyone technical at your organisation can open them in Notepad and check exactly what they do before you run them.
Common questions
Questions people have asked
We do not have Publisher any more. Can you still convert our files?
Sometimes — send me one file and I will tell you honestly whether it comes out well before you commit to anything. Converting .pub files without Publisher is genuinely unreliable, and I would rather say so than take your money and hand back something mangled. If you do still have Publisher, run the free tool. It will always beat anything I can do from the outside.
Why Canva and not Word?
Word is a word processor. It fights you the moment a layout has columns, a masthead and images that must stay put. Canva is a layout tool, which is the same category of thing Publisher was — so the rebuild behaves like the original, and your volunteer is not learning to wrestle with text wrapping. If you would genuinely rather have Word, say so and I will build it in Word instead, same price.
Does Canva cost anything?
The free tier is enough for most bulletins. Canva also offers Canva Pro free to registered charities and non-profits, which covers a lot of churches and community groups — worth applying for either way. I will point you at the application; I have no commercial relationship with Canva.
Who are you?
I'm Andy, a software developer in Melbourne. I trade as Graycord, ABN 81 991 438 742. This is not an agency and there is no sales team. You will deal with me, in writing, and there is nothing to sit through on a call.
How fast is it, really?
Three working days for a single publication, from the moment you send the file. If you are up against a print deadline, say so in the form and I will tell you straight away whether I can hit it rather than promising and hoping.
What if we want changes later?
The template lives in your own Canva account and you can change anything in it yourself — that is the point of handing it over rather than keeping it. One round of changes by me is included. Beyond that, ask and I will quote.
Get started
Send me the file
Fill this in and I will reply the same day, in writing, with a straight answer about whether I can help and how long it will take. If I cannot do a good job on your file, I will say so — that is a better outcome for both of us than a refund argument in October.