Okay, so I uninstalled 1.9 and installed the previous version on my laptop. SAME ISSUE. I did NOT have the issue before I upgraded to 1.9. As an experiment, I installed the version prior to 1.9 on my husbands laptop and everything worked just fine. That told me that 1.9 did something to my system. NO WAY was I installing 1.9 on his.
I uninstalled the previous version on mine — again ... and found a “restore point” on my laptop from about a week and a half ago and wound my whole system back to that point. THEN I installed the version of Publisher prior to 1.9, and everything works just fine.
Note to self: wait a few weeks after a new version is released to get the upgrade.