Can InDesign open Microsoft Publisher files?

No—Adobe InDesign does not directly open .PUB files. MarkzPortal converts Microsoft Publisher files to IDML, which Adobe lists as a format InDesign can open, allowing the document to be edited in InDesign. Microsoft 365 subscribers will lose access to Publisher after October 1, 2026, so important files should be identified and converted before that date. For the complete retirement timeline and a comparison of migration options, see our Microsoft Publisher end-of-life migration guide

Editor’s note: This video was recorded during MarkzPortal’s pre-release period. MarkzPortal is now a production online service. The transcript below reflects the product and pricing available when the video was recorded; visit MarkzPortal for current features and pricing.

Microsoft 365 subscribers will lose access to Publisher after October 1, 2026, while support for perpetual Publisher 2021 versions ends October 13, 2026. If you still rely on .PUB files, now is the time to identify and convert the documents you need to preserve.

MarkzPortal lets you preview individual Publisher files online and convert them to editable IDML for Adobe InDesign or Affinity Publisher. For larger folders and batch migration projects, use the OmniMarkz Conversion Center to inventory, assess, and process entire Publisher archives.

Open and Preview PUB Files Online

• Preview Microsoft Publisher .PUB files online before converting.
• Export editable IDML for Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher, or QuarkXPress.
• Download the converted document and its associated images.
• Preview the file and review available document information before deciding what to convert.
• No Microsoft Publisher installation is required.

Ready to open a Publisher file? Preview your .PUB file online with MarkzPortal—no Publisher installation required.

How to Convert Publisher to InDesign Online

1. Upload your Microsoft Publisher .PUB file to MarkzPortal.
2. Preview the document and review its file information.
3. Select the conversion option and export the document as IDML.
4. Download the converted file and associated images.
5. Open the IDML file in Adobe InDesign and review the layout, fonts and images.

Tips for Clean Publisher-to-InDesign Results

• Confirm that the page size and orientation match the original Publisher document.
• Install or substitute any missing fonts before adjusting the layout.
• Check for overset text, changed line endings and text-frame resizing.
• Verify linked images and review their effective resolution.
• Inspect margins, bleed, master pages, tables and special effects.
• Save the converted document as an INDD file and package its fonts and linked images.

Convert Microsoft Publisher to InDesign Online

Video Highlights

Transcript

Recently, we announced Microsoft Publisher support in the MarkzPortal, our new pre-release of our SaaS portal on markzportal.markzware.com, which you see, right here on my screen, and in OmniMarkz, our desktop download, if you need desktop download for Macintosh or Windows.

So, it’s real simple. You just drop your file onto MarkzPortal. In this case, it’s absolutely free, the preview. And, then, from there, you get conversion options. You convert to Affinity Publisher to Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, whatever you need, and free pre-flight reports. Isn’t that amazing?! Okay. And 3, 2, 1.

So, how many Publisher files are out there? Well, there are hundreds of millions to over a billion, given the upcoming 2026 end-of-support or end-of-life date, the sheer volume of Microsoft Publisher files highlights the need for reliable conversion tools those from Markzware.

But, now, we have Microsoft Publisher support in OmniMarkz, our bundle of all of our conversion products have desktop download, and in our new pre-release of our SaaS portal, MarkzPortal, which is really neat. So, this is where you can now get your Microsoft Publisher files previewed, so, you see what they are, and that’s free.

So, anyone who has a .pub file, doesn’t know what it is, and wants to see what’s inside of it, you can view it, for free, with our tools. And, then, you get conversion optionsto Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher, or QuarkXPress. So, let’s show you how this all works, here.

Microsoft Publisher File Converted to Adobe InDesign in MarkzPortal

So, here I am, in OmniMarkz. And I can now take a .pub file, drop it on OmniMarkz, here, and I’ll get a preview, over here on the left-hand side. And you’ll see it’s a very good preview. You can see what’s inside of your file.

You can even zoom in, if you need to. You get forms, you get your images, you get everything. Everything’s there, right? All you can, then, do is click one of these and open it in any given application. For instance, okay, let’s open this in Affinity Publisher. Boom! Click the Publisher icon. Off it goes, opening. We’ll skip this version, for now.

And there you go! You see you have some resizing you have to do, in some of your text boxes, but it’s quite easy. You have your legacy content freed up, now, in Affinity Publisher, in this case, which is getting very popular. And I think Affinity Publisher, not only because of the name, will be very popular with Microsoft Publisher users, because Affinity Publisher is on Mac and Windows and is, quite frankly, more powerful than Microsoft Publisher and very affordable.

Affinity was just purchased by Canva, not so long ago, so, that’s very interesting, as well, because that gives you access to a whole online set of possibilities for creativity, which will help us as desktop publishing artists, here.

Now, let’s show you the next part of the demo, here. That’s how you can convert Microsoft Publisher files, with OmniMarkz. That’s a demo download. In OmniMarkz, you also get QuarkXPress to all the different options. You get InDesign to Affinity Publisher. You get PDF to InDesign, to get all kinds of stuff to InDesign, to Affinity Publisher, to QuarkXPress, whatever you need, right? And other options, like converting or exporting to PDF or to image types, exporting text stories, etc., etc., etc., right? Okay.

So, now, I’ll show you the new, in the pre-release, right now, of MarkzPortal. In the web browser, here, we just go to MarkzPortal.Markzware.com. When you come in, you’ll be able to set up a free account. The free account will allow you to preview the file, like you just saw in OmniMarkz and, from there, you can set up, you can purchase subscriptions to do conversions, right? If you need a conversion.

So, now, I’ll take another file, another Publisher file. We’ll drop it on MarkzPortal. This is fully online, so, it might take a little bit longer. Oh, look at that! Just right up there. Pretty fast.

And we get this awesome preview, right here. And, now, we can scroll through and see what the document’s all about. I’ll say, “Okay. That’s neat.” Maybe you just want to preview it, to check it out, and say, “Okay. This document is the one I’m looking for.”

Print it or maybe say, “Okay. What I need to do is convert this to Adobe InDesign.” You click “Convert”. You click “Download”. You get your download. You double click the file you get. And there you go! It opens right up.

So, this is MarkzPortal, over on MarkzPortal.Markzware.com. You can try it out, today, for free. Get your previews. And, then, you can do different conversion options. It’s really, really exciting.

Preflight Report Demonstration in the Original Video

There’s even free pre-flight reports within MarkzPortal. Let’s preflight a file. We’ll drop another Publisher file on the MarkzPortal. We get the preview. And, over here, we get the different report types. There’s Inventory or Preflight. And, then, you can choose between different formats to download, from RTF, TXT, XML, JSON, or HTML.

And you just click “Report”. You see the report is very useful. You get a FlightCheck Score, which people really like. You see this one is not scoring too high. And you can see, over here, what exactly the problems are, fonts, and images.

And, then, you can go in and drill down and see exactly what the problems are. Resolution, 72 DPI, etc., etc., etc. A very handy report of exactly what’s in the file, for legal reasons, if not practical production reasons, all free on the MarkzPortal.Markzware.com.

You can also check out a host of other files, like InDesign files, Photoshop files, Illustrator, – This one is Dutch. – .PSD, native Photoshop file. We get a preview of it. That’s all you want. That’s free. If you want to do conversions, you have to pay and the pre-flight is totally free, as well.

So, whether it’s your Publisher file, or InDesign, or this Photoshop file, you just click “Report”. You can choose different formats for your Preflight Report, including JSON. Very interesting for automated workflows. Report processing. Download. And, there, you have it, right there, in your web browser. You see your free FlightCheck Score. 92%. Not bad, right?

Now, one last thing to show you. We’ll use that same file, here in OmniMarkz. You can do the same thing with InDesign, because that’s the most popular place to go to, Affinity Publisher and/or InDesign.

And you can just click “Export” to “IDML” and open it, manually, or just click Open in “InDesign” like that. It, then, takes the file, and you get everything. Look at that. Look how great that conversion is.

You can get in there, now, and you can edit stuff, you can change stuff, but it’s really just an amazing conversion. And it’s all very affordable, over on MarkzPortal.Markzware.com, or via OmniMarkz, the desktop download.

Also, just to make sure you understand, you get not only the InDesign file, you also get all of the images, exported at resolution used. This is an extremely powerful way to take old .pub files and convert them, with imagery, into new, modern layout programs, such as Adobe InDesign or Affinity Publisher. So, this has been David Dilling, for Markzware.

Check it all out, over on markzware.com, to learn more about Publisher support in MarkzPortal and OmniMarkz. All right, everybody. Have a great day! And don’t forget to sign up for MarkzPortal. It’s absolutely free. Free preflight.
[End of Transcript]

Choose the Right Microsoft Publisher Conversion Option

Choosing a new application for future documents and migrating existing Microsoft Publisher files are two separate decisions. Most replacement applications can create new documents, but they cannot directly inventory, open or migrate an existing .PUB archive.

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Choosing a new application for future documents and migrating existing Publisher files are two separate decisions. Most replacement applications can create new documents, but they do not directly inventory, open and migrate an existing .PUB archive. Markzware fills that migration gap.

Updated August 19, 2026