Publisher is dead. Long live PowerPoint!

You may have heard the sad news that, after a long and illustrious career, Microsoft Publisher will disappear from users’ screens next year. Microsoft announced that Publisher will no longer be supported from October 2026 and between now and then users are invited to migrate their files and indeed way of working to other programs. If you’re a Publisher fan or regular user, there’s no need to worry, we’re going to take a look at some great alternatives to Publisher.

But before that, though, I’d like to say a few words over this oft-overlooked, but very plucky tool that has been a stalwart of the Microsoft suite for decades.

In memorium

Publisher was the first tool that just let you make stuff. We all know how – even today – Word is the finnickiest of finnicky tools if you’re looking to do anything more than just type some stuff on a page, and at the height of Publisher’s popularity, PowerPoint was on its whole ‘click to add text’ drive to bring presentations to the masses.

But Publisher opened our eyes to more – it showed you another way to make documents. With its vast array of templates and elements to choose from, you could build your content without having to worry about size, and bleed, and where to start with a layout. Simply put, it brought design to a mass audience.

Now, it has to be said that when you let a mass audience do design, the vast majority won’t do a world-class job, but how many of those kids who used Publisher to make their school projects ended up falling in love with design and now create the wicked cool stuff we see every day? At least a few, I reckon.

In its latter years, it has been usurped by all sorts of other tools, but it deserves its place in design history, and we’ll miss that teal P when it finally goes.

Alternatives to Publisher

If you’re a big fan of Publisher and you’re thinking about what the future might look like for you. Fear not! I have three alternatives you can turn to today that will make the Big Switch Off much easier when it comes.

InDesign: for the pros

Publisher, at its core, is a very simple form of Adobe InDesign. It’s a design suite that enables you to create all sorts of documents. Think of Publisher as your first car. It could do a lot of the stuff that a Ferrari can do, but just not as well, and the Ferrari can also do a lot more.

If you want to open up a whole world of document creation with precision editing and design, then you’ll want to head straight over to this cornerstone of the Adobe suite.

But remember, with great power comes great responsibility. InDesign goes way beyond your simple PDF editor and gives you the same tool that full-time industry professionals use every day. That means it’s an incredibly capable piece of software, but it’s easy to get lost in its complexity. It’s also another subscription outside of your M365 account.

Canva: for the templates

If the thought of InDesign brings you out in nervous sweats, then there is a great alternative to Publisher that has been growing in popularity over the past few years. Canva, much like Publisher, is packed full of templates to give you a great starting point for all of your design projects.

If you basically want Publisher, but with design inspiration from this decade, rather than the same decade as the Spice Girls, you can’t get much better than Canva. Even our beloved PowerPoint won’t get you the fresh design elements that Canva has.

If you have a more fixed company brand that means you can’t lift and shift direct from Canva’s suggestions you won’t be able to get the most out of the templates, but the editing tools have come on along way since the beginning and you’ll still be able to create your collateral quickly and easily with a number of publish options. It even lets you create animated graphics and videos, which is something Publisher never supported.

The downside is, like InDesign, it’s a new subscription – at least potentially. Canva has a free offering with tonnes of great functionality built in, but if you want to unlock its full potential, or even use it across a team, you’ll likely have to opt for one of their paid services.

PowerPoint: for full flexibility

In the words of Yoda, ‘there is another.’ In fact the best is yet to come. That’s right, PowerPoint is the best alternative to Microsoft Publisher and here’s why.

PowerPoint used to be ‘that presentation tool’. Those same kids who used to make brochures in PowerPoint for fun, probably also made slideshows for fun. (Again, is it really just me!?) Now though, PowerPoint is the jumping-off point for all sorts of content creation. Yes, you can make presentations, but you can also make animations and videos, GIFs, PDFs, images – and all of that at any size and resolution.

Thinking of PowerPoint as your content creation go-to has a number of benefits. We’re printing less than we’ve done in the past. The rich publications that used to slip through our letterboxes have been replaced by rich media ads on social media, or long-scroll infographics delivered direct to our inboxes. You need a tool that is digital-first and quick to master.

PowerPoint has also been around long enough that there are a tonne of tools out there that can help you create better content, and do it more efficiently. Add-ins like BrightSlide shave hours off your PowerPoint workflow, and have you heard about BrandIn yet? It will revolutionise the way you create content, giving you all your best on-brand content in just a couple of clicks.

But the best news of all is that PowerPoint is already in the M365 suite, and I reckon you’re using it a lot already. Make it work harder for you – for the sake of Publisher.

Before we go, let’s have your best Publisher memories in the comments below. Or drop in some other great alternatives we can try today!