Microsoft Sends Publisher Retirement Notifications, Triggers Backlash

Last year, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Publisher would be retired in October 2026. The company is now moving forward with the process as Microsoft 365 users are seeing notifications about its retirement.

As Microsoft phases out Publisher, users respond with backlash

The notification states that Publisher will be removed from Microsoft 365, and users won’t be able to open Publisher files.

As Neowin reports, this has been met with major backlash. The biggest complaint is the inability to open previously saved files. However, Microsoft has already provided workarounds to export files to other Office apps. It’s worth noting that these workarounds might be hard to follow, especially for less tech-savvy users.

Despite Microsoft offering alternatives, users claim that these apps aren’t suitable for designing printed materials as they don’t have the necessary alignment tools.

Others are also criticizing Microsoft’s focus on cloud services because it allows the company to remove apps entirely without providing an alternative. Since this is a subscription service, it’s no surprise to see that users are frustrated by this decision.

Publisher is legacy software, and it’s not as popular as other Office tools. Therefore, it’s speculated that this is the reason for its removal. Unfortunately, users can’t do much about this decision, except migrate their projects to different software.

In related news, Microsoft added an array of new features to Excel last month. The company also plans to bring faster file search to Office apps.