Office 2016 & 2019 EOL - Heads up

[Olliedawg]

Get ready now: One year until Office 2016/2019 end of support - Microsoft Community Hub

 

Microsoft recommend moving to 365 apps (of course) - or upgrading to Office LTSC 2024.

 

We've gone for 2021 for the time being - only buys us another year of updates (oct 2026) but we still use Publisher a lot (admin team & students) - which is no longer present in Office versions past 2021

[3s-gtech]

The loss of Publisher is going to make some staff very cross.

 

I've got a few files I work on once a year in Publisher, I'll have to keep it in mind. I'm no fan of InDesign for occasional work!

[Olliedawg]

The loss of Publisher is going to make some staff very cross.

 

I've got a few files I work on once a year in Publisher, I'll have to keep it in mind. I'm no fan of InDesign for occasional work!

 

I use it on the odd occasion, not often enough for it to worry me too much - but I can imagine it will upset a fair few staff here too, I haven't told them yet!

 

For booklets etc Publisher is much better than Word - I can't see why they're axing it.

[Andrew_C]

I can't see why they're axing it.

 

Because they get some kind of kick out of users frustration when all their images dissapear into a huddle in the corner of a document that was fiine yesterday?

 

[MrEprise]

It's Primary schools who are going to be hit hardest with the loss of Publisher. One Primary our Trust supports uses it to generate their end of year Pupil reports and they also create mid-term flipbooks (which detail what that year group has been up to) using it too.

[PotNoodleTech]

Got Office 2021 on Win 11 image so as I am migrating rooms over then the office problem will be solved too.

[Jaan]

I've just sent this to our staff:

 

Hi everyone,

I wanted to inform you that Microsoft is discontinuing Publisher in the upcoming Office 2024 release.

 

As an alternative, we encourage you to explore Canva and Affinity, which are readily available to both staff and students. These tools offer versatile features and can be used to create various types of content.

 

If you have any teaching resources currently stored in Publisher, now might be a good time to migrate them to a different platform.

 

We anticipate transitioning to the next version of Office for September 2025. Any remaining Publisher formatted documents will become unusable.

 

Regards

 

IT Support

[DavR]

We've got gobs of stuff on Publisher here, teachers love it. I've never been fond of it, but then, I've never had the same design needs as our teachers.

 

I went up to Office 2021 this summer to avoid the forthcoming Office 2019 EOL. Will be holding on to this until summer 2026, and then that'll be the end of Publisher!

 

I've already warned our lot once, but will run more warnings from next September. Hopefully, being the last year, teachers can convert stuff as they need it.

 

I wonder if anyone will release a decent Publisher reader/converter in the interim? What have everyone else been recommending as an alternative? I've been saying Word and PowerPoint, but neither are really a replacement.

[Jaan]

Canva and Affinity are free now to education

[DavR]

I always had Canva down more for presentations, than desktop publishing? Affinity Publisher might be worth a go, though - is this something you're installing on your desktops by default?

[Jaan]

I always had Canva down more for presentations, than desktop publishing? Affinity Publisher might be worth a go, though - is this something you're installing on your desktops by default?

 

yeah it's on all our machines

[msi_school]

I wonder if anyone will release a decent Publisher reader/converter in the interim? What have everyone else been recommending as an alternative? I've been saying Word and PowerPoint, but neither are really a replacement.

 

I am trying to move staff to Canva but I am also asking them to output all their designs as a PDF so we can at least see and hopefully edit the document when they say "we need the certificate, you know we use all the time"

 

This is also a job I can give to a technician closer to the EOL deadline with out them having to understand the purpose of the document.

[DavR]

Yep, PDF is a good backup to have, especially if the design doesn't need to be changed.

 

I'm assuming there will still be plenty of Publisher-to-PDF convertors online after Publisher retires, but, I'd rather not put too much faith in them re Data Protection.

[mullet_man]

Is there a timeframe with Microsoft 365? Will it remove Publisher at some point?

[DavR]

Publisher End of Life is in October 2026 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/microsoft-publisher-will-no-longer-be-supported-after-october-2026-ee6302a2-4bc7-4841-babf-8e9be3acbfd7

 

You can continue to use Publisher with its current functionality until October 2026.

 

Support for the perpetual version of Publisher will end in October 2026, when Office LTSC 2021 reaches end of support. Microsoft 365 customers will not be able to access Publisher from that date forward. [/Quote]

 

 

So yeah, I presume that means they'll be removing download access to Publisher for O365 clients. Existing installations will probably keep working, but, with all the caveats that come with using support expired software.

Edited October 16, 2024 by DavR