Use this as a compatibility guide, not a scorecard
stillPUB imports the content the Publisher reader can expose, then gives you an editable page-layout document. Some source features become ordinary editable objects. Others are simplified, flattened, or cannot be identified reliably by the reader. The table separates those cases so you can decide what to inspect in your own file. It is a feature map, not a competitor benchmark: the separate 22-file comparison with LibreOffice Draw and Scribus records what that test did and did not measure.
Start in the app. Open the .pub file and expand the import warnings panel if it appears. The panel names known changes. Then page through the document and export a PDF for the final print check. An empty warning panel is useful, but it does not prove a pixel-for-pixel match to Publisher.
Have many files? The local folder scanner inventories them without changing or uploading the originals.
What carries over from a .pub file
| Publisher feature | What stillPUB keeps or makes editable | What to review |
|---|---|---|
| Pages and ordinary text boxes | Pages, text boxes, text, common paragraph formatting and fixed text-frame bounds import as editable page-layout objects. | Read the text on every page. A font change or a complex layout can change wrapping, overflow or spacing. |
| Pictures | Common embedded pictures and their signed rectangular crop fractions import as editable picture objects. Real-file tests prove inward crops; browser and PDF tests cover transparent outward extension. The browser can decode many legacy WMF pictures to PNG. The local PDF exporter also handles the 118 closed, solid polygon WMFs verified across the flyer and pedigree fixtures. | No real corpus file has an outward crop, so compare unusual crops with Publisher or a reference PDF. Other WMF drawing states, EMF, PICT, TIFF and an unreadable image can need a placeholder or conversion. The warning panel names formats it cannot display. The browser currently paints a white WMF canvas while the local fallback keeps unpainted pixels transparent, and neither has been compared with Publisher output. |
| Shapes, fills and outlines | Common shapes, lines, flat fills, outlines, opacity, shadows and linear gradients become editable objects. | Complex paths, shaped picture clips, radial-style gradients and gradient transparency can be simplified. Known simplifications are reported. |
| Tables | Rows, cells and merged spans import as editable tables with their text. If source padding is unavailable, imported cells use zero padding and shrink overflowing text to keep it visible inside the original fixed cell. After import you can set each cell side's border color, weight and style (solid, dashed, dotted or double), fills, margins and vertical alignment; they show on screen and in PDF, image and HTML exports. | Publisher's own cell borders, fills, padding and vertical alignment are not recovered yet: no test file proves where the .pub format stores them, so every imported table carries a warning instead of a guess. Check borders, fills, padding, text size, vertical alignment, widths and page breaks, and restyle cells where needed. |
| Tab stops | Tab stop positions import. stillPUB edits, displays and exports left, right, center and decimal tab stops with dot, dash or line leaders, set from the Paragraph dialog. Right and center stops in a .pub file are inferred from the position of the stops in two real test files, and the import report says so. | Check any tabbed line, such as a price list or a program order, against the original. Imported decimal stops and leaders are not recovered yet and arrive as plain left stops; set them again in the Paragraph dialog. Decimal alignment uses the period only. |
| Fonts | The document keeps its font names. PDF export has bundled metric-compatible substitutes for Calibri, Cambria, Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New. | Other unavailable fonts can fall back to a similar or standard font. Check line breaks on screen and in the PDF; the export report names substitutions and fallbacks it makes. |
| Master pages | Source master identities import as shared master pages. Edit a shared master once to update its assigned pages. | Review the imported stacking and every assigned page. A source master that is missing or invalid is named in the import warnings. |
| Linked text boxes | Source-proven reciprocal linked frames import as one editable, ordered story and reflow through its frames. | Check line breaks and overflow. Missing, conflicting or incomplete source links are left as independent text boxes and reported instead of guessed. |
| WordArt and decorative text | Source type-136 plain WordArt imports as editable plain WordArt with its recovered text, line breaks and font name. | Other WordArt transforms keep their original outline as a shape and receive a warning. Check fonts, fitting and decorative effects against a reference; a substituted font changes the glyph outlines. |
| Embedded Office objects | An embedded object can arrive as its preview picture. | The embedded spreadsheet, chart or other source program object is not editable in stillPUB. A legacy preview format may also need conversion. |
| Fields, page numbers and links | Recognized fields can import with a display value, and ordinary web addresses can export as links. | Some fields, internal links and source hyperlinks lack the information needed to stay live. Check page numbers, forms and links before relying on them. |
Printing and the new editable file
stillPUB saves the editable result as .stillpub, not back to .pub. It exports PDF, JPG and PNG. Use the PDF export report before printing: it names font substitutions and other known export approximations. For a folded bulletin or duplex job, set the page range, scaling and booklet or two-sided options in the print workflow for that output; treat them as print choices, not Publisher settings imported from the original file.
If two-sided pages come out upside down or shifted on the back, use Check my printer in the print dialog. It prints a two-page test sheet with rulers, asks what you see, and saves the answer as a named printer profile. Choosing that profile corrects the flip edge and shifts the back pages by the measured amount. It never scales your content, and it warns about pages with content inside that printer's unprintable margin.
Moving a whole folder? Convert a folder of Publisher files on the start screen converts each .pub file to a PDF and an editable .stillpub copy, one at a time on your computer, and saves them in one zip file with a report that names any file that failed.
A safe first conversion
- Keep the original .pub file and, if Publisher still opens it, export a reference PDF.
- Open the .pub file in stillPUB and read the import warnings.
- Check every page, especially headings, linked columns, decorative text, pictures, page numbers and repeated headers.
- Export a PDF and inspect the result at normal print size.
- When it is right, save a .stillpub copy as the editable master for future changes. Keep the original .pub beside it because .stillpub does not contain the source file and future importer improvements need the original.
For the basic opening steps, see how to open a .pub file without Publisher. To inventory a folder first, use the read-only local scanner. If you need only a print or archive copy, use the PDF conversion guide.