Microsoft retired Publisher in October 2026. Schools, churches, sports clubs and small businesses were left with years of flyers, newsletters, certificates and templates saved in a format almost nothing else can open. Free Pub Editor reads those files in your browser and lets you keep editing, printing and sharing them.
Who makes it
Free Pub Editor is made by Glassrope. It isn't affiliated with Microsoft. You can reach the people who build it directly at hello@freepubeditor.com.
How it works
The editor is a single web page. When you open a .pub file, code running in your browser reads the Publisher format and rebuilds each page as editable text boxes, pictures and shapes. Your file isn't uploaded: it never leaves your device. Your work is saved in your browser as you go, and you can save an editable copy or export a PDF at any time.
Publisher's file format was never published. Free Pub Editor's reader is our own, written with the help of the format notes published by the open-source libmspub project, and Microsoft's published specifications for Office drawing and compound files.
What it can and can't do
- Opens with layout: files from Publisher 2002 to Publisher 2021 and Microsoft 365, including text boxes, pictures, shapes, tables, master pages, backgrounds and text formatting.
- Partly: Publisher 2000 files open as text only. Linked text boxes put all their text in the first box, WordArt keeps its words but not its effects, and picture recolouring isn't supported.
- Not yet: Publisher 97 and earlier, and batch conversion of many files at once.
How we test it
We test against real Publisher files and compare the results side by side with LibreOffice's rendering of the same files. So far that's four real-world files: a 14-page, 24 MB school newsletter with dozens of photos, a school calendar, and the two sample files from the Apache POI project. All four opened with their layout and matched LibreOffice closely; the calendar's tab-stop columns came out more accurately. That's a small sample, and we're adding more files as people report problems.
Cost
It's free, with no sign-up and no watermark. A small number of ads on these information pages, plus one small ad in the editor sidebar, pay for hosting.
Contact
Found a file that doesn't open properly, or have a suggestion? Email hello@freepubeditor.com. If a file doesn't look right, tell us which Publisher version made it and what looks wrong. Please don't send files containing personal information.
For help with common questions, see the blog and our guides to opening .pub files online and converting to PDF.
Microsoft and Microsoft Publisher are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Free Pub Editor is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Microsoft.