What to Do with Your .pub Files Before October 2026

Gary Walsh

Gary Walsh is the Head of Tech Support at Software Supplies, with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Fully Microsoft-certified and experienced across the full business software stack — from Windows and Office to cloud infrastructure and device management — Gary delivers practical, no-nonsense advice that helps users and businesses get the most from their technology.

The deadline is 1 October 2026. After that date, if you’re on Microsoft 365, Publisher is gone — and with it, your ability to open .pub files without a workaround. Here’s exactly what to do before that happens.

Want to keep Publisher?

Office Professional Plus 2021 — the last version that includes it

Perpetual licence. No subscription. Publisher keeps working after the deadline.

Get Office 2021 — £69

What actually happens on 1 October 2026

Microsoft has confirmed that Publisher reaches end of life on 1 October 2026. From that date, Microsoft 365 subscribers can no longer open or edit .pub files in Publisher. The application won’t be available to install or download through any M365 plan.

Your files don’t get deleted. They stay exactly where they are. What stops is your ability to open them — at least, without finding another way.

M365 vs perpetual — the distinction matters: If you have a perpetual copy of Publisher through Office Professional Plus 2021 or earlier, it continues to work after 1 October 2026. Microsoft’s support ends on that date, but the software itself keeps running. This is the same position millions of Office users find themselves in after every product cycle.

Convert your files now, while Publisher is still open

The single most important thing to do before the deadline is convert your critical .pub files while Publisher is still available. Once you lose access, your options for opening them become unreliable. Do it now, not in September.

Export to PDF

PDF is the right format for anything you need to preserve for printing or reference. In Publisher: File → Export → Create PDF/XPS → Save. Do it for every document you’d want to open or share in the next few years. A PDF doesn’t preserve the editable layout, but it preserves content and appearance exactly — which is usually what matters most.

Save as Word

If files need to stay editable, Publisher can export to .docx via File → Save As. The conversion is imperfect: text boxes shift, columns need tidying, and image wrapping rarely survives cleanly. Simple single-column layouts come through reasonably well. Multi-column documents with precise print specs are better served by PDF.

Bulk conversion via PowerShell

For a large archive, manual export isn’t practical. Microsoft provides an official sample PowerShell script for bulk PDF export. You’ll need a working, licensed copy of Publisher installed. The two commands worth knowing:

# Convert a single file
Convert-PubFileToPDF.ps1 -Filter "C:\Documents\MyFile.pub"

# Convert all .pub files in a folder and subfolders
Convert-PubFileToPDF.ps1 -Filter "*.pub"

Test it on a small batch first. Microsoft provides it for instructional purposes and recommends adapting it for your specific needs before running it across an entire archive.

If you want to keep using Publisher

Office Professional Plus 2021 is the last version of Office to include Publisher, and a perpetual copy continues to run on your machine after 1 October 2026. Support ends — security patches stop — but the software keeps working. For a desktop publishing application on a managed machine, that’s an acceptable trade-off for most users.

Office Professional Plus 2021 extended support ends on the same date Publisher leaves M365: 1 October 2026. After that, the software runs without updates. Publisher 2021’s feature set is unchanged — this isn’t a degraded product, it’s simply outside Microsoft’s patch window, exactly as millions of perpetual Office installs have been after previous product cycles.

Office Professional Plus 2021 £69

Publisher 2021 included
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
Access and OneNote
Perpetual licence — no subscription
1 PC, instant digital delivery
Continues working after the October deadline

Get Office 2021 with Publisher

Office Professional Plus 2024 does not include Publisher. Neither does any other 2024 edition. Office 2021 is the end of the line for Publisher under a Microsoft licence.

5-year cost — M365 Personal subscription vs Office 2021 perpetual

If you can’t open a .pub file right now

If you’ve already lost access to Publisher and need to open a .pub file, the options are limited. There’s no officially supported migration path — .pub is a proprietary format and Microsoft provides no standalone reader.

LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Draw can open .pub files and it’s free. In practice, rendering is unreliable: text boxes shift, fonts substitute with whatever’s installed, and complex layouts rarely survive intact. Simple single-page documents fare better. Worth trying for a one-off — not reliable enough for a systematic archive.

Web-based converters

Several online tools will convert .pub to PDF, DOCX, or image formats. Quality is inconsistent. Simple layouts on straightforward documents come through adequately. For anything important, batch conversion via Publisher while you still have access is the only dependable approach.

Scribus

Scribus cannot open .pub files. It has no native import support for the format. This claim surfaces regularly online and is wrong every time. To get Publisher content into Scribus you’d need to export to PDF first — at which point the editable layout is already gone.

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Frequently asked questions

What happens to my Publisher files after October 2026?

The files are unaffected — they stay wherever they’re saved. What changes is how you open them. From 1 October 2026, M365 subscribers can no longer open or edit .pub files in Publisher; the application is removed from the subscription entirely. If you have a perpetual Office 2021 licence, Publisher continues to run — support ends on that date, but the software keeps working.

Can I open Publisher files without Publisher?

With difficulty. LibreOffice Draw can open .pub files but layout fidelity is unreliable — text boxes shift, fonts substitute, and complex layouts break. Web-based converters handle simpler documents with variable results. Neither is reliable for anything where the exact layout matters. Converting to PDF while Publisher is still available is the practical answer; once access is gone, your options are significantly reduced.

Is Publisher really going away in October 2026?

Yes. Microsoft has confirmed Publisher reaches end of life on 1 October 2026. It won’t appear in any future Microsoft 365 plan, and on-premises support ends on the same date. The only route to Publisher beyond that point is through a perpetual licence — Office Professional Plus 2021 continues to work after the support window closes.

Can Scribus open .pub files?

No. Scribus has no native .pub import support — it’s a desktop publishing application, not a .pub reader. To get Publisher content into Scribus you’d need to export to PDF first, which means losing the editable layout before you start. The claim that Scribus can open .pub files appears frequently online and is incorrect.

Will I lose my documents if I upgrade Microsoft Office?

Upgrading Office doesn’t delete files — .pub files stay wherever they’re saved. The problem is that Office 2024 doesn’t include Publisher, so upgrading from 2021 to 2024 means losing the application even though the files remain on your drive. If you’re on Office 2021 and Publisher is part of your workflow, don’t upgrade to 2024. If you’re on Microsoft 365, Publisher will be removed from the subscription in October 2026 regardless.