Evidently Microsoft Office 365 (a virtual program, operating online only) won’t open Publisher files after October 1st, 2026. And even if you have a standalone version installed on your computer (most recently sold in a 2021 package) it will open but won’t receive security patches after October 16, 2026–leaving you vulnerable to viruses.

After twenty five years of designing things I have 352 Publisher files so I did some research and experimentation to find the “best” solution to this bad situation. Here are my notes on converting Microsoft Publisher (.pub) files to other formats like Adobe (.pdf) and PowerPoint (.pptx). The goal is to keep my designs editable for personal future use / modification.

First, there is no easy solution. Publisher does not have the ability to export or save as Powerpoint .pptx. Powerpoint does NOT have the ability to open or import either .pub or adobe .pdf. Inkscape (an open-source graphics file) cannot open .pub files nor import them. (It uses .svg files but not all .svg files are the same. If you find a program like Libre Office that can export .svg, you will notice when you open that file in Inkscape the designs are not editable, they are images.)

Univik Pub Converter: I installed version 6.9 from the website  $40 for a license to convert files one by one. $99 for a license to convert in batches. https://univik.com/file/converter/pub.html This app is also in the MS Windows store but only version 6.7.
– Don’t need access to Publisher in order to open .pub files, but Univik says it can help the conversion.
– Univik will continue to be able to open .pub files after October 2026.
– conversion to .svg did not yield an editable file, it was only an image.
– conversion to .pptx was editable but hit or miss no matter the options I chose

PubBridge (from Microsoft store) $9 for up to 1000 file conversions one-time fee. Single file or batch processing.
– does automated conversion from .pub to .pdf based on native Microsoft Publisher ability to save as .pdf, but then it only can do .pdf to .pptx if you have acrobat pro (I do, by subscription $30 per month)
– PubBridge depends on the ability to run Publisher and use it to save to .pdf. It will cease to function October 2026 because Publisher will cease to function October 2026.
– If a font isn’t embedded in the .pub file and the upgrade to Windows 11 doesn’t have it installed, the conversion errors out. Have to first open the .pub file in publisher under Windows 11, see if it gives an error about not having that font. If it does give the font error, have to close it, go to the Advanced Font Viewer app I have, find the font and install it. Then go back and the same .pub file opens without a problem. Then it can be converted.
– files made in Publisher 98 error out, can’t be converted. Examples: Writing.pub and writing2.pub (Later note: Univik says it can open these files made in earlier versions of Publisher.)
– It processed a lot of files correctly, including multiple pages in Publisher as multiple slides in Powerpoint, and one word-art file with word art and borders horizontal and vertical. But it had trouble with a flowchart diagram I made, called Chapter 6 DIY vs Financial Adviser (filled and arrows).pub It made some circles and ovals outlines extra dark, had to fix it in PowerPoint, and in the lower left the circle couldn’t be selected at all so it couldn’t be fixed.
– On this troublesome Chapter 6 file I also tried to manually go to the Adobe .pdf file (which looked correct) and save as PowerPoint .pptx but it had the same problems as the PubBridge automated export.
– If you store extra images or design elements / shapes outside the viewable area for later use, they will not convert to Adobe .pdf and will not be visible on the slides in PowerPoint .pptx.

Libre Office Draw. (Open Office is defunct; the initiative continues under Libre Office. “Draw” is the equivalent of Publisher). It can open publisher files without needing to have Publisher installed. It can edit them but not resave or export the result as .pub, and it can’t save or export to PowerPoint .pptx either. It has its own format .odg, .fodg, and .otg But it can export to .pdf and graphics formats .gif, .jpg, and notably: SVG for Inkscape. But its .svg file isn’t editable, it comes into Inkscape as an image.
– libre office will continue to be able to open .pub files after October 2026.
– It screwed up the line spacing of a five-line text box within a larger polygon so that I had to fix the two.
– It hid all the line endpoint arrows on the flowchart. I had to use a master view setting to reveal them all. But then with that setting active all the circles for the nodes had arrows, too. These I could click on and right click to select “Close Object” and it looked normal again.
– It cannot process word art, or borders on a page
– It screwed up the alignment of various different text boxes with each other, but I learned keystrokes to fix this: select, then use arrow keys on keyboard to maneuver, use shift+arrow keys to make larger movements, use alt+arrow keys to make smaller adjustments to position.
– Any polygon I drew myself from lines now is a nightmare of turning on and off endpoints that I haven’t yet figured out.
-Libre Office Draw can export to .svg (I thought to then use Inkscape) but it makes everything into a single image, not editable parts.
– If you store extra images or design elements / shapes outside the viewable area for later use, they WILL show and be editable in Libre Office Draw.

CONCLUSION:
– I will use both the PubBridge and Libre Office Draw solutions. The first I will run immediately in batches prior to October 1st, 2026. The latter I will run when I need to edit an individual file after October 1st, 2026. I won’t use Univik at all.
– When PubBridge errors out on a missing font I will use Advanced Font Viewer to add it into Windows 11
– Starting in November, 2026 I might want to buy a standalone publisher in the Microsoft Office Pro 2021 version if I need to. (Not the 2024 or 2026 versions which are online only.) I hear you can have both the online and standalone versions at the same time but they have to be installed under different windows logins so as not to interfere with each other. (Just create a new profile for the computer login screen.)