Quick answer: go to the Free Pub Editor, click Open and choose your .pub file. Your pages appear with their text, pictures and layout, ready to edit, print or save as a PDF. Nothing is uploaded.
Step by step
- Open freepubeditor.com/editor in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox.
- Click Open in the toolbar and choose your .pub file. You can also drag the file from your desktop or Downloads folder straight onto the page.
- Wait a moment while it reads the file. Large newsletters full of photos usually take a second or two.
- Use the page thumbnails on the left to move between pages. Double-click any text to edit it, or double-click a picture to replace it.
- Click Export PDF to print or save a copy, or Save to keep an editable copy you can open again later.
What comes across from your Publisher file
- Layout: every text box, picture, shape and line at its original position and size, including rotated items.
- Text: fonts, sizes, colours, bold, italic and underline, alignment, line and paragraph spacing, indents, tab stops, bullets and columns.
- Design: fill colours, gradients, borders, page backgrounds and master-page items such as headers and footers.
- Pictures: photos (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP) with their cropping, plus old clip art saved as WMF or EMF.
- Tables: rows, columns and merged cells, with their text.
If your computer doesn't have a font the publication used, Free Pub Editor uses a free font with the same letter widths, so text breaks onto the same lines. For example, Calibri is shown as Carlito and Arial as Arimo. If a box shows a small red marker, the text is slightly longer than the box; drag the box a little bigger.
What can't be opened yet
Files from Publisher 2000 open as text only, set out page by page, and files from Publisher 97 or earlier can't be opened. Text that flows from one linked text box into another appears in the first box. WordArt keeps its words but not its special effects.
Other ways to open a .pub file
| Option | Cost | Good for | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Pub Editor | Free | Opening and editing in the browser, private files, PDF export | Very old (pre-2002) files open as text only |
| LibreOffice Draw | Free | Opening on a desktop computer | A large download; text and layout often shift |
| Microsoft Publisher | No longer sold | Exact editing, if you still have an older copy | Removed from Microsoft 365; old copies lose support |
| Online converter sites | Usually free | A quick PDF | Most upload your file to their servers, and you can't edit the result |