Why this is hard
A Publisher document is boxes on a page. A Word document is a river of text that flows from page to page. Turning one into the other means deciding, for every text box, where it goes in the river. Conversion can change text-box placement, picture positions and column order. Inspect the resulting Word document.
The routes, and what each one gives you
Publisher itself (while you still have it)
Publisher can save a document as a Word file, but only as the text of each box in sequence, with layout discarded. It is the right tool if you want the words and nothing else. Microsoft 365 loses Publisher on October 1, 2026; bought copies stop being supported on October 13, 2026.
Online pub-to-docx converters
Some services offer direct .pub-to-.docx conversion. Check their handling and retention terms before uploading. Inspect text flow, floating objects and pictures in the resulting Word document.
LibreOffice Draw
Opens the .pub file locally. From Draw you can export PDF, or copy text out box by box. There is no direct save to .docx from Draw that keeps the layout.
stillPUB
Opens the .pub file locally and keeps it as a page layout you can edit: retype the text, move the boxes, replace the pictures, add a page. Exports PDF, JPG and PNG. It does not export .docx. If Word was only a stepping stone to a PDF, this is the shorter path. If you genuinely need the content as a Word document, copy the text out of each box (click in, select all, copy) and paste it into Word; the paragraphs survive.
Rule of thumb: if the document is a layout (a flyer, a bulletin, a card, a certificate), keep it a layout. If it is really a letter or a report that happened to be made in Publisher, copy the text into Word and reformat it once.
Going the other way: Word into a page layout
stillPUB also opens Word .docx files and turns headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, links and pictures into editable objects on pages. Word's exact pagination is not promised, and the app warns you when text reflows. It is a useful route for turning a Word draft into something you can arrange visually and export as JPG or PNG.