Serif makes a very capable alternative also called Publisher. I really like their software - you can buy it without a subscription and it's very polished.
Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
11–20 of 71 posts
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#12I thought the point of office was to be paid tools for professionals? I last used publisher a week ago. Instead of software it seems they just want to push ads and AI slop. Shameful.
> I thought the point of office was to be paid tools for professionals?
Desktop publishing professionals don’t use Publisher - nowadays mostly they use Adobe InDesign, 20 years ago it was mainly QuarkXpress. Also Adobe FrameMaker - InDesign is more heavily used for consumer-facing output such as magazines and brochures, FrameMaker more for technical documentation
Microsoft Publisher was always a tool targeted at home users, small businesses-even if some of its users were “professionals” in other contexts it was never a professional tool
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#13Mind boggling. This isn't even a feature freeze / slow deprecation, it's a hard cut?
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#14I thought the point of office was to be paid tools for professionals? I last used publisher a week ago. Instead of software it seems they just want to push ads and AI slop. Shameful.
> I thought the point of office was to be paid tools for professionals? Desktop publishing professionals don’t use Publisher - nowadays mostly they use Adobe InDesign, 20 years ago it was mainly QuarkXpress. Also Adobe FrameMaker - InDesign is more heavily used for consumer-facing output such as magazines and brochures, FrameMaker more for technical documentation Microsoft Publisher was always a tool targeted at home…
I consider small business to be the professionals I refer to. Professional as in paid tools, not desktop publishing businesses.
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#15I thought the point of office was to be paid tools for professionals? I last used publisher a week ago. Instead of software it seems they just want to push ads and AI slop. Shameful.
> I thought the point of office was to be paid tools for professionals? Desktop publishing professionals don’t use Publisher - nowadays mostly they use Adobe InDesign, 20 years ago it was mainly QuarkXpress. Also Adobe FrameMaker - InDesign is more heavily used for consumer-facing output such as magazines and brochures, FrameMaker more for technical documentation Microsoft Publisher was always a tool targeted at home…
I still hold a grudge against Adobe for killing the Mac version of FrameMaker and not releasing an OS X version. I used it for everything. It was even decent as an editor. In comparison, MS Publisher seemed like a toy program.
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#16Sad to see classic Microsoft applications that are actually loved shut down, only to be replaced by things like Windows 11, that are made to be maximally invasive and anti-user.
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#17Next should be Visio, which is more than replaced by diagrams.net/draw.io
Nothing comes close to matching the underlying power of Visio shapesheets.
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#18Serif makes a very capable alternative also called Publisher. I really like their software - you can buy it without a subscription and it's very polished. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher
Never heard of this company but the website makes these products look very mature. How does it compare to Adobe?
It would be great to see someone like this make an alternative to Office as well. I’d be glad to pay. I know some open source options exist but they always feel behind the times to me compared to Office.
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#19Next should be Visio, which is more than replaced by diagrams.net/draw.io
Nah, Microsoft makes good money from Visio licenses - I'm sure it more than pays for itself and helps keep the megacorps locked in. All of our org's corporate laptops come with Office but you can request Visio if you need it - the license cost gets charged back to your department.
Re: Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026
#20Serif makes a very capable alternative also called Publisher. I really like their software - you can buy it without a subscription and it's very polished. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher
Never heard of this company but the website makes these products look very mature. How does it compare to Adobe? It would be great to see someone like this make an alternative to Office as well. I’d be glad to pay. I know some open source options exist but they always feel behind the times to me compared to Office.
I have used Affinity photo and it is a really powerful alternative to photoshop. Have not used any other products but have been very impressed with Affinity photo.