- Microsoft has officially retired Publisher and ended support
- .pub is a proprietary file format, but the app used to access it has gone
- LibreOffice reverse-engineered the format so that you can use the Draw app
Microsoft has quietly ended more than three decades of Publisher after pulling support for Microsoft 365 subscribers earlier in October 2026 – even perpetual license under Publisher 2021 lost support following the company's decision.
While .pub files aren't set to be deleted, Microsoft fans will no longer be able to view and edit them, and are instead being told to move over to Word, PowerPoint or another suitable app.
But LibreOffice just declared its support, throwing Publisher users a lifeline – and it was a lot harder than you might've thought.
LibreOffice had to reverse-engineer Publisher
"From today, these documents are in a proprietary format, the only fully compatible application for which has been abandoned by the very company that created it," Italo Vignoli wrote, noting that the developers behind the Document Liberation Project had to reverse-engineer the .pub format, which isn't an open standard.
As a result, Publisher fans can now finally open .pub files with LibreOffice Draw, but that's only part of the news because LibreOffice's Italo Vignoli went on to slate Microsoft for forcing users into a vendor lock-in, restricting their access to controls and forcing unwanted updates onto them.
"If you are responsible for documents in a public sector organisation, a school or an association, now is the time to check whether your file format is proprietary and dependent on a single vendor’s application," Vignoli added, stressing that proprietary formats like .pub force users to hand over all access control to the vendor.
Users who have already lost access to Publisher via their M365 subscription are being advised to bulk-convert their .pub documents via a PowerShell script or another automation tool. Perpetual licenses, like Publisher 2021, don't remove the app, however its functionality will likely degrade over time as bugs creep in and attackers find vulnerabilities to exploit.
