About After Publisher
Plain-English help for people who built their bulletins, flyers, and newsletters in Microsoft Publisher — written by a freelance designer who kept getting asked the same question.
The same question, from client after client
I'm a freelance website designer and graphic designer working with small businesses and nonprofits in southeastern Pennsylvania. Many of my clients create their own bulletins, flyers, posters, newsletters, and programs in-house — and for a lot of them, Microsoft Publisher is the program they've done it in for years.
When Microsoft announced that Publisher would no longer be available through Microsoft 365 after October 1, 2026, the same question started coming up: what are our options now?
I knew they needed direction, but the honest answer was never one program. It depended on what they were making. A weekly church bulletin, a newsletter that goes to a mailing list, a one-off event flyer, and a sheet of address labels each call for different tools — and none of that answers the other big question: what to do with all the old .pub files.
So I built After Publisher to make it easy to find the right path. Start with what you make, get a straight answer for that project, and know what to do with the files you already have.
Nothing here assumes you're technical. It's written for the volunteer who has made the bulletin every week for a decade, the office manager who inherited a folder of files, and the small-business owner who just wants the flyer to print.
~ Holley
Three rules every guide follows
Start with what you make
Every guide is organized around a real project — bulletins, newsletters, flyers, labels — because the best replacement depends on the job, not the brand name.
Checked against real sources
Deadlines come from Microsoft's own announcement, and what each tool can and can't do is researched against current documentation — not guessed.
Honest about trade-offs
If a tool is a poor fit for a job — Word for a photo-heavy flyer, Canva for a mail merge — the guide says so instead of pretending every option works for everything.
Independent, and upfront about how it's funded
Independent
After Publisher is an independent resource. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, Canva, or the LibreOffice project. Microsoft and Publisher are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
How the site is supported
The guides are free to read. The site is supported by the Publisher Retirement Kit — a paid, step-by-step download — and may display advertising. Recommendations are based on what works for the project you're making, not on who pays.
Corrections are welcome
Software changes, and so do deadlines. If you spot something out of date or wrong, please let me know so it can be fixed.