LibreOffice Steps In to Keep Microsoft Publisher Files Usable After Retirement

Microsoft retires Publisher

As of October 1st, 2026, Microsoft 365 subscribers can no longer access Publisher, the desktop publishing tool used for creating visually rich publications such as newsletters, leaflets, and calendars. According to the company's website, the tool is no longer included in Microsoft 365 and existing on-premises suites, and is no longer supported.

LibreOffice Draw opens PUB files

LibreOffice, a free, open-source productivity suite developed by Germany-based non-profit Open Document Foundation, announced it will help users continue working on Publisher's PUB format files. Users can open, view, edit, and manage PUB files using LibreOffice Draw, the suite's graphics drawing program.

The organization says its developers reverse-engineered the PUB format and created the libmspub library, which is used by LibreOffice and Scribus, an open-source desktop publishing software, to import Publisher files. "This is to enable MS Publisher users to continue reading their own documents regardless of Microsoft's decisions," its blog post reads.

Open formats over proprietary ones

Files can be saved in the OpenDocument Format (ODF), the standard, open format for office documents that isn't dependent on any application or company. According to LibreOffice, Microsoft's suggestions to convert PUB files to PDF for viewing and printing, and to DOCX for editing after Publisher is shut down, don't constitute "a solution to the problem." In both cases, users are asked to transfer content from one vendor-controlled proprietary format to another vendor-controlled proprietary format, which is, in fact, the same vendor.

A sovereign alternative

The Open Document Foundation considers LibreOffice one of the most complete and sovereign alternatives to Microsoft 365. The productivity suite is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux in 120 languages. Its most recent major release, LibreOffice 26.8, which is deliberately free of AI, attracted unprecedented interest, with more than 2 million downloads in the first 2 weeks after its release.

Sources: Cybernews