So it's already EoL as they're not going to update it at all.

So, Borkzilla, how's about open-sourcing the format of the .pub file ?

Or would you be too embarrassed at what people would find ?

Eh, who am I kidding ? Redmond will never open-source anything it doesn't absolutely have to.

Anyone remember that, I started off with version 3 I believe, but had a go with Microsoft Publisher and fell in love, still use it occasionally today in Office 2010.

Started at v2 and regularly updated until I switched to Mac about 10 years ago. Serif had a whole suite of graphics apps. My biggest problem with Serif was their marketing - as a customer I regularly got email and phone calls selling new products (despite asking to be taken off their lists). Notwithstanding, I tried most but never found the others approached the quality of PP.

Tried their newer Affinity apps on the Mac - good but they upgraded and expected users to buy again (with very small discount for "upgrading"). Good software but not impressed with their sales and marketing, so looked around and found good alternatives where loyalty is appreciated. Don't need a DTP nowadays (fortunately) - MS Publisher (via a Win11 VM) has been my latter goto when absolutely needed. I have access to the full Adobe suite if needed, but I keep that on a VM as I don't like the way their newer offerings dig into macOS - and try not to use.

Although Serif lost their way for a while I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with Affinity, and their reluctance to adopt the SaaS model is to me an absolute breath of fresh air. The discount offered to v1 users for the full v2 suite cross-platform license was IIRC 40%, which isn’t bad, and there are pretty regular 25% discount offers, but I’ve yet to upgrade from v1 as it still works fine for my needs.

Serif PagePlus...

Anyone remember that, I started off with version 3 I believe

Yeah, I think we had a cut down version of V2 on Windows 3.11.

I used it for many years and I've held on to the X2 CDRom in case I ever want/need to open the files again (assuming I could get it to install on "modern" Windows.

> the future is uncertain for those wondering what to do with all those .pub files.

Darn, what else will I use to accidentally open up my public SSH key on Windows?

Time to throw it in the bin, along with Windows 10 and those old 7 licenses. A pity. I once used it a lot, for brochures and how-to guides, but now it's just for making calendars.

May I recommend a replacement:

http://www.scribus.us/

Only rarely did I have a chance to use Microsoft Publisher. While an editor for the high school newspaper [1], I learned Adobe PageMaker. After that, I volunteered in college with the student government, whose Communications dept. used Quark Xpress [2].

[1] Rest in peace. My tenure (graduated 1998) was near the end of its life as an actual newspaper printed on an offset press from tabloid-size rolls by the local (county) newspaper in our town. It was replaced by a photocopied newsletter with horrible design -- no polish whatsoever. By now it's all digital media with zero semblance of real journalism.

[2] I was their first e-mail newsletter wrangler, using Eudora and a manually curated list -- no automation; the university website login didn't work and social media wasn't yet a thing. I wouldn't have minded learning Quark, but I never got a chance -- the single station (Power Mac) was always occupied.

I haven't used Publisher in decades. The other day, I had to actually look up what that P icon was in Office. Oh, Publisher. Yeah, I remember that. I used it from day one and it sucked. So did the next version.

I'd been using DTP since day one, starting with Ventura and Aldus Pagemaker. I also used to write Magna code (long lost to history at this point) by hand in the early days of digital typesetting. Funny how it was so close to HTML that making the transition to HTML 3 only took me a few weeks.

In that era, Pagemaker was the one to use. Then came Quark. What a flying piece of shit that was. So needlessly complicated. Of course it became the darling of the DTP world precisely FOR its complexity. In other words, it was best at creating the gatekeeping priesthood and nothing more.

Publisher's biggest problem was not being able to handle all the competing typesetting, printing and color formats of that time. I do NOT miss the format wars.

Then Word muscled into the do-all DTP world and became what most people used. Not professionals, but most people. (which reminds me of that time Word tried be a website maker as well.)

So yeah, goodbye Publisher. I won't miss you.

In the various versions of Office over the last decade or so Microsoft in its wisdom put Publisher in the Pro /Business editions of Office, where many are likely to have a need for something more sophisticated, but for no apparent reason it was not in the Home/student versions, where it would be useful for making invitations and "Thank You" notes, homework projects etc., or posters for small local/ communal events ( Church jumble sales and the like).

Or to put it another way, they restricted a programme perfect for amateur or occasional business use ( a small restaurant's menu, say) to commercial enterprises.

And it's totally incomprehensible why they would do this.