[ms office - o365] Microsoft Publisher - EOL 2026

[thimon]

This is going to upset many staff! Microsoft are discontinuing Publisher October 2026.

 

M365 Admin Center notice: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?ref=MessageCenter/:/messages/MC716267

 

or

 

 

That being said, a lot of staff are now using Canva, instead of Publisher.

[robyholmes]

Be interesting to see the reaction to this news you'd think even if they wanted to retire it they would offer an upgrade path to something else.

[3s-gtech]

Wouldn’t it be interesting/unprecedented/useful if they open-sourced it?

[DalekSec]

Last time i saw Publisher being used was 4 years ago by our DT Dept. Who since then moved away from it...

[Iain.Faulkner]

This is going to upset a lot of our admin staff.....I'm very happy about it though

[Olliedawg]

I honestly can't remember the last time I used publisher

[KarlGoddard]

Finally....!!!

 

Our DT dept insist on students using it for their portfolio work.

[dmj]

At last. an abhorrent piece of software.

[3s-gtech]

I’ve stuck with it for our leavers yearbook. I tried with InDesign, but the learning curve wasn’t worth it for a yearly application, and the end result was plenty good enough anyway.

 

Our Prospectus uses it too, but in parts that really needs freshening up!

[Roberto]

This is some of the best professional news I've had this week.

[Norphy]

I'm no lover of Publisher, but I always cringe when I see someone trying to do DTP work in Word because it just looks awful. If they're suggesting that people change their workflows to Word and PowerPoint for this kind of thing, I hope that they actually make it possible.

[enjay]

Not many people here use it, the ones who do more serious graphic design are using Illustrator on InDesign. I suspect Microsoft's plan is to replace it with chargeable licences for Designer, much as they do with Visio.

[Cat_Jam148]

While I've never been a fan of the software, it had its uses. Only just redesigned the school newsletter in it so looks like that'll have to be done again in something else.

 

There are a few Teachers in school who won't be too pleased with this announcement.

[MatthewL]

Not the end of the world I don't think, haven't used it for ages until this weekend I needed to knock something together and Word wasn't playing ball so Publisher to the rescue!

[enjay]

Not the end of the world I don't think, haven't used it for ages until this weekend I needed to knock something together and Word wasn't playing ball so Publisher to the rescue!

 

I used PowerPoint last time I needed to make something like that!

[ITGuyNW]

Last time I used Publisher was the make a leaflet in the 90s. Since then I've used PowerPoint or an online tool like Canva.

[MatthewL]

I never think of PowerPoint but yeah that would work too. I rarely use anything other than Outlook, Excel and Word.

 

Be interesting to see how many notice it goes.

[kennysarmy]

Will it stop working or just stop being supported?

 

We're using : Microsoft® Publisher for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2501 Build 16.0.18429.20132) 64-bit

[Olliedawg]

Will it stop working or just stop being supported?

 

We're using : Microsoft® Publisher for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2501 Build 16.0.18429.20132) 64-bit

 

It will be removed from the 365 apps package I believe. If you want to carry on using Publisher you would need to use one of the LTSC Office versions which still has publisher

[supportman]

https://designer.microsoft.com/ is the way forward

[enjay]

https://designer.microsoft.com/ is the way forward

 

Or Canva, you can sign up the entire school for free.

[Olliedawg]

Or Canva, you can sign up the entire school for free.

 

Yep, Canva is brilliant. Use it loads

[BKGarry]

For anyone looking, this academic year I got the SSO working for Canva, and it is beautiful. Instructions for that are here https://www.canva.com/en_gb/help/set-up-sso-edu/

 

Staff are setup as staff automatically and they all get the premium features.

[PotNoodleTech]

Oh wow I didnt realise Canva was free for education - will do that thanks!!

[enjay]

For anyone looking, this academic year I got the SSO working for Canva, and it is beautiful. Instructions for that are here https://www.canva.com/en_gb/help/set-up-sso-edu/

 

Staff are setup as staff automatically and they all get the premium features.

 

Yeah, the instructions are pretty clear. It took a few hours (term-time hours, probably less than an hour if you can concentrate!) to set it up. You have to choose MS or Google for the SSO, you can't have both unfortunately.