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Imagine if you paid for a piece of software and the people who made it decided they're just going to remotely uninstall it.
If I really ever need to use Publisher (rather than Scribus or Inkscape), I'll bust out my paid-for copy of Microsoft Publisher 98. Now if only I could find an optical drive...
I can understand no further updates and no more support, but let us keep the latest version FFS! I have a stock of custom made TTRPG character sheets I'd like to keep and be able to edit.
BTW, they've released a powershell script for converting pubs to pdfs, but I'm an idiot and can't work out how to use it. If anyone can write out a step by step guide, I'd hugely appreciate it
If you own the perpetual version of Publisher you can still install and run it after that date :)
If you have the cloud subscription version, you're sadly out of luck.
I can see why MS did this, because for the subscription version, if they allow you to keep accessing the final version under subscription license it means they also have to continue to security patch that version like the rest of the suite, because they are still responsible for it.
Legally, it's a very different paradigm from software that you sell one-time as an installer, and then have no further responsibility for.
And that is not a defense of Microsoft - rather, it's a criticism of the intrinsic reality of cloud software.
The only commercial software that will never betray the user is software that comes with an offline installer, and a perpetual license (and even then, only if it doesn't need the Internet to activate. Looking at you, Adobe...)
They could totally just send everyone with a Publisher subscription perpetual licence keys.
You shouldn't need to use Powershell if you still have Publisher: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/save-as-or-convert-a-publication-to-pdf-or-xps-using-publisher-657332d0-d2c2-464a-9870-e9b3d22e6469
Basically you just open it, then click Export where you'd normally click Save, and save it as a PDF.
There are converters online too IIRC
I know how to do that, but doing them all would take... ok, probably a little over and hour. So not THAT long, but I'd much prefer to leave a script running
I haven't seen an official script, but found one on the MS learn site that should work.
You need to have publisher installed.
Copy all your PUB files into a folder.
Press Start and type in powershell, and open powershell.
Copy the code below into notepad and replace C:\PubFiles with the path to your folder, then copy the script and paste it into the powershell window by right clicking on the window (it pastes when you right click).
(You might need to press enter after pasting it)
$PubFilePath = "C:\PubFiles"
$publisher = New-Object -ComObject Publisher.Application
$files = Get-ChildItem $PubFilePath -Recurse -Filter \*.pub
foreach ($file in $files) {
try{
$doc = $publisher.Open($file.FullName)
$pdfPath = \[System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($file.FullName, ".pdf")
$doc.ExportAsFixedFormat(\[Microsoft.Office.Interop.Publisher.PbFixedFormatType]::pbFixedFormatTypePDF, $pdfPath)
$doc.Close()
} catch {
Write-Error "Failed to convert $($file.FullName)"
}
}
$publisher.Quit()
Handling a running application like it's just some object in the memory feels so deeply cursed for some reason.
I kinda like it
I can see one upside: pub files will eventually mean public keys.
And by uninstalling Publisher, they force people to pirate or install Scribus.
to pirate or install Scribus.
Took me a few times of re-reading this before I realized you didn't mean "to pirate ... Scribus" and I kept thinking "why would you need to pirate Scribus??"
The FitGirl version of Scribus just runs better...
That’s why they’re repacked. Some of that FitGirl energy is included for some extra performance zoopies.
For the thrill of the heist?
I'm always in favour of a fit girl.
Unintentional promotion of open-source.
Not-especially-hot take: Everything Microsoft's been doing for roughly the last 18 months or so has been promoting open source. I've been a Windows user since Me, and I was happy with Windows 11. I jumped ship to Linux in April last year when I saw which way the wind was blowing.
s/18 months/43 years/
Breaking News: Publisher about to become unpublished
Honestly, I have never used Publisher and not sure what it even does
For making, like, posters and stuff.
Most of the functionality is duplicated in powerpoint.
Publisher still exists!?
Wtf
I thought this was about an actual publisher for a second
John Microsoft, the publisher of Windows, has reached retirement age. He will close his laptop and every copy of windows worldwide will just delete itself.