Everything you use in Publisher, and what's coming.

Opening your files

• Open .pub files

  Yes

  Opens files from Publisher 2002 through Publisher for Microsoft 365 directly, with no Publisher on your computer.

• Publisher 2000 files

  Partial

  They open and edit, though some shapes and text wraps come in simpler than Publisher drew them.

• Publisher 97 and 98 files

  Partial

  PubKeep offers to upgrade the file on our secure server first, which needs the internet, and deletes it from the server as soon as it's done.

• Everything in the file

  Partial

  A few things are not drawn yet, including border art, pattern and texture fills, and some unusual shapes like seals and callouts. When PubKeep spots a shape or fill it can't draw yet, it shows a notice.

• Your installed fonts

  Yes

  Uses the fonts on your computer, including Office cloud fonts that Microsoft 365 already downloaded.

• Missing fonts

  Partial

  A missing font is set in a stand-in, which can move line breaks, and the status bar lists which fonts were replaced.

• Save your work

  Yes

  Saves to .pubk, an open format that keeps a copy of your original .pub inside. PubKeep does not save back to .pub.

• Recent files

  Yes

  Your last ten files are on the start screen, one click away.

Editing and layout

• Text boxes

  Yes

  Draw a text box and type right on the page, or double-click any existing box to edit it.

• Text formatting

  Yes

  Font, size, color, bold, italic, underline, alignment, line and paragraph spacing, indents, character spacing, and tabs.

• Bullets and numbering

  Yes

  Bulleted lists, plus numbered lists as 1, 2, 3 or a, b, c or I, II, III.

• Columns and linked text boxes

  Yes

  Split a text box into columns, or link boxes so a story flows from one to the next.

• Text fit

  Partial

  Best Fit and Shrink Text on Overflow work. Growing the text box to fit its text is not built yet.

• Drop caps

  Partial

  Two ready-made styles, dropped or raised. Custom drop caps are not built yet.

• Text wrap

  Partial

  Square, Top and Bottom, Tight, and Through all work. For now Tight and Through wrap around the picture's box, not its outline.

• Master pages

  Partial

  Edit the masters in your file and apply them page by page. A new publication gets one master for now.

• Headers, footers, page numbers

  Yes

  Add them from the Insert tab, and they repeat on every page that uses the master.

• Multi-page documents

  Yes

  Add, duplicate, delete, and drag pages into a new order, and view facing pages as a two-page spread.

• Page sizes

  Yes

  Letter, Legal, Tabloid, Executive, A3, A4, A5, B4, and B5, in either orientation, plus your own saved custom sizes.

• Rulers and guides

  Yes

  Rulers, margin guides, guides you drag out from the ruler, and smart guides that line objects up with each other and the page.

• Page background

  Partial

  Five background colors. Custom colors, gradients, and picture backgrounds are not built yet.

• Undo and redo

  Yes

  Step back through your last 100 changes, and forward again.

• Find and replace

  Yes

  Search the whole publication, with match case and whole word, and replace one at a time or all at once.

• Spell check

  Partial

  Red squiggles as you type, suggestions, and your own dictionary words. It checks English only.

• Hyphenation

  Partial

  Automatic hyphenation with an adjustable zone, for English text.

• Layers and the Properties pane

  Yes

  See every object on the page in a list, rename, reorder, hide, or lock it, and change its settings in one place.

• Arrange objects

  Yes

  Group, align, distribute, rotate, flip, bring forward, and send back.

Pictures and design

• Insert pictures

  Yes

  JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, and SVG, from a file or dragged onto the page, plus empty picture placeholders to fill later.

• Crop pictures

  Partial

  Crop to a rectangle. Cropping to a shape, like an oval, is not built yet.

• Adjust and replace pictures

  Yes

  Brightness, contrast, recolor, washout, a transparent color, borders, and Change Picture to swap in a new one.

• Alt text

  Yes

  Describe a picture or shape for people who use screen readers.

• Shapes

  Yes

  Rectangles, ovals, stars, hearts, arrows, lines, connectors, and more, with solid or gradient fills and custom outlines.

• Shadows and shape effects

  Coming soon

  Shadow, glow, and soft edges are on our list.

• WordArt

  Partial

  Most of Publisher's WordArt styles, with the words still editable. A few curved styles and vertical text are not built yet.

• Tables

  Partial

  Insert tables, add and remove rows and columns, resize, shade cells, and set borders. Merging cells and table styles are not built yet.

• Calendars

  Yes

  Insert a calendar in one of four designs, then change the month and year, the first day of the week, and weekend shading.

• Pattern fills

  Coming soon

  Pattern fills from your older files are on our list to draw.

Mail merge and labels

• Mail merge from Excel or CSV

  Yes

  Connect an Excel workbook or a CSV file as your list. Outlook contacts need to be exported to a CSV file first.

• Type a new list

  Yes

  The Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard lets you type names and addresses into a new list.

• Choose recipients

  Yes

  Check or uncheck who to include, and find a recipient by name.

• Merge fields and preview

  Yes

  Insert any column from your list into your text, then step through each record to see how it looks.

• Merge to printer

  Yes

  Print every record, or only the ones you pick.

• Merge to a new publication

  Yes

  Create one publication with a copy for every record, which you can save or export as a single PDF.

• Address Block and Greeting Line

  Coming soon

  Until then, insert the name and address fields one at a time.

• Avery label sheets

  Partial

  Nine Avery US Letter products are built in: 5160, 5163, 5167, 5168, 6876, 22205 round labels, 5392 name badges, and 3263 and 5389 postcards. More are coming.

• Mail merge onto labels

  Partial

  To print one record on each label, choose Multiple pages per sheet in the Print pane. Otherwise each record fills a whole sheet.

Templates

Start from a template on the start screen, then make it your own.

• Bulletins and programs

  Yes

  Folded church bulletins on Letter or Legal paper, a concert program, and a memorial program.

• Newsletters

  Yes

  A four-page newsletter, plus holiday and fall editions.

• Flyers

  Yes

  An event flyer in Letter and A4 sizes.

• Certificates

  Yes

  Certificates of appreciation, achievement, and recognition.

• Greeting and thank-you cards

  Yes

  Birthday cards and folded thank-you cards, ready to print.

• Calendars

  Yes

  Monthly, church, family, and classroom calendars.

• Labels

  Yes

  Return address labels on Avery 5160.

Printing and PDF

• Print

  Yes

  Pick your printer, copies, pages, paper size, and color or grayscale, with a live preview of each sheet.

• Booklet printing

  Yes

  Fold-over booklets print in the right page order to fold down the middle.

• Print on both sides

  Yes

  Two-sided printing on the long or short edge, or manual two-sided that tells you when to flip the paper.

• Several per sheet

  Yes

  Print several copies of a small page, or several different pages, on one sheet of paper.

• Export to PDF

  Yes

  A print-ready PDF of the whole publication, with fonts embedded and text kept as real text.

• Save as a picture

  Yes

  Save a page, every page, or just a selection as a JPEG or PNG, for email or social media.

Platforms and pricing

• Windows

  Yes

  Runs on 64-bit Windows.

• Mac

  Yes

  Runs on Macs with Apple silicon or Intel, so your .pub files open on a Mac for the first time.

• Works on your computer

  Partial

  Editing, fonts, templates, and spell check run on your computer. PubKeep needs the internet to activate and checks in at least every two days.

• Automatic updates

  Yes

  New versions download in the background, and you restart when it suits you.

• No subscription

  Yes

  A one-time purchase, with no monthly bill. See pricing.

• Bulk .pub to PDF

  Yes

  The PubKeep Converter turns a whole folder of .pub files into PDFs on the web, and your first 3 files are free.