Guides
Plain answers about .pub files, the Publisher retirement, and what to do next — written for church, school and small-office staff.
Is there a Microsoft Publisher viewer? What actually works in 2026
Microsoft never made a viewer for .pub files — and most "free PUB viewer" downloads are best avoided. Here's the safe way to just see what's inside one.
You've converted your .pub file to PDF. Now what?
A PDF isn't a dead end. Where to print it, sign it, edit the words, or rebuild the design — and when the Word download is the faster path.
How to open a .pub file without Microsoft Publisher (2026)
What can actually read a Publisher file when you don't have Publisher, and the fastest way to see what's inside.
Microsoft Publisher is retiring October 1, 2026: what actually happens to your files
Your files don't disappear. But the program that opens them does. Here's the real timeline and what to do this month.
We converted 50 real church bulletins: here's what broke
41 of 50 converted cleanly. The other nine had font or border changes. Here's each problem, how often it happened, and what to do.
Convert PUB to PDF: every option after Publisher's October 2026 retirement
LibreOffice, online converters, exporting from an old copy of Publisher — an honest comparison with the catches of each.
Publisher retirement checklist for church offices
What to do before October 1, in order: find every .pub file, sort them into three piles, convert the two piles that matter.
I have hundreds (or thousands) of Publisher files — how to bulk convert them
For IT admins and office managers: finding every .pub on a shared drive, converting in one batch, and checking the results.
Why your converted .pub file looks slightly different — and what we do about it
Fonts are the usual reason. What substitution means, why Publisher did it silently, and how we report it.
How to open a .pub file on a Mac
Publisher never existed for Mac. Here's how to open, read and convert one anyway.
Someone sent me a .pub file and I can't open it
The two-minute answer, plus what to ask the sender for next time.
What is a .pub file? (and why it needs Publisher)
Where .pub files come from, why nothing else opens them, and what to keep instead going forward.
What to use instead of Publisher after it retires
Word, Canva, Affinity, LibreOffice — what churches and small offices actually switch to, by kind of document.