import MS Publisher files to Afinity Publisher.

[Chills]

I  need to import some Microstoft Publisher files to Afinity Publisher. I know... I am truely sorry but it is not my fault!  I thought MS Publisher had died a long time ago  but I am working with some  people who think the FAX machine is moden!!

Does any one have any sensible ways of  converting or importing .pub files to a useable format that I can ingest into Afinity Publisher?

I susspect I will have to get them to suck out all the text and pictures and start agin.

Thanks

Chris

[walt.farrell]

Perhaps MS Publisher can create a .rtf file, or a .docx file, or a PDF?

[Chills]

13 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Perhaps MS Publisher can create a .rtf file, or a .docx file, or a PDF?

Obviously an RTF or doc file isn't going to work. MS Publisher is similar to Afinity Publisher in that there is a lot more formating data in there than text. Also if it was that simple I wouldn't be asking here. Unlike other MS Office programs there is no free "viewer" for Publisher.

It seems that some versions can save to PDF though it is unclear if this is native or via a PDF-Printer that you have to install. IT seems to depend of version of MS Pub.  Given the users I am deaing  (not computer literate which is why they are using MS publisher in the first place)  with  It may be better to get the origional text files and images they used and start again rather than deal with the MS-Pub PDF and have to fix the anomlaies, which you know there will be.

[GarryP]

If they are not particularly computer-savvy, as you suggest, do you think they will have the necessary knowledge to be able to extract the text and images from the original Microsoft Publisher document, especially, as you have started, that there’s “a lot more formatting data in there than text”?

LibreOffice can open Microsoft Publisher files (1998-2010) so opening the files in there and then exporting them to PDF before opening the PDFs in Affinity Publisher might be a possibility. (I’ve never tried this myself so I can’t say how well this might work.)

[Wosven]

For this kind of thing, I wouldask them to "save as" HTML (this option would give a folder with the images, since sometimes they have a hard time finding them... and it would be better than low res PDF), and try an online converter to get the PDF version.

It's also possible (since it seems there's an MS365 Publisher version) that the file is made of compressed XML, and doing a copy, and replacing the extention to ZIP would permit to open it and retrieve the images.

19 minutes ago, GarryP said:

LibreOffice can open Microsoft Publisher files (1998-2010) so opening the files in there and then exporting them to PDF

It depend of whatit look like, but you can end up with texts and frames outside of the page... Perhaps it's possible to retrieve them later when opening the PDF in an Affinity app. There's a long time since I received such files, but it was like doing a bad puzzle...

[Chills]

I am not even going to think about Libre Office. either putting it on my systems or trying loading it to theirs. 
As Wosven noted the formating is likely to go astray anyway. So conversions may not be a good idea.

Therefore now I am hoping that the people who made the MS Publisher documents have the images and text files they used to build the publisher file as seperate items.  It might be easier to start with the raw componants and completely new Afinity Publisher set up.

Hopefully MS wil kill their Publisher and people will stop using it. The only people I have ever come across who use MS Publisher are non-computer literate ametures.   Which only componds the problems. 

MS might be King in word processing but I do wish they would acept that other programs handle desktop publishing far better than MS Publisher or at the very least let Publisher export in other formats.  I will see if I Can get them to convert to Afinity Publoisher.

 

[Wosven]

23 minutes ago, Chills said:

MS Publisher documents have the images and text files they used to build the publisher file as seperate items.

Don't count on this, they probably use base files, but modified a lot the Publisher document, perhaps they had it from last year or even before... and checking differences between texts can be tedious. Even with tools to automate this.

23 minutes ago, Chills said:

Hopefully MS wil kill their Publisher

If they don't use it, they'll use Powerpoint… or Words badly. That's why we're here, to make things"beautiful", or at least look professionnal

 

...and, I'd rather let them use something they knew, than trying messing with something they don't. Especially if they only know basic stuff.

[Chills]

10 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Don't count on this, they probably use base files, but modified a lot the Publisher document, perhapsthey had it from last year or even before... and checking differences between texts can be tedious. Even with tools to automate this.

If they don't use it, they'll use Powerpoint… or Words badly. That's why we're here, to make things"beautiful", or at least look profesionnal

 

...and, I'd rather let them use something they knew, than trying messing with something they don't. Especially if they only know basic stuff.

You are right they they may have lsot the base files. I don't mind them using Word badly.. I can fix that. All I would need is the text and images seperately.  In any case the publisher files would need proof reading... they are not as accurate as they could be re spilling and grimmer.  🙂

I agree it is probably better they use something they know. In which case it will have to be Word. I will do the formating in Afinity Publisher.

thans to all for the commments and suggestions.

 

[Wosven]

The more important is to get a PDF (or screen captures, if they can't manage to create a PDF), to check you've got everything that should be there, and delete everything that shouldn't be there (yes, this kind of things can happen, lol, when importing badly formatted documents).

[emmrecs01]

@Chills

I have MS Publisher currently installed (though never used) as part of MS Office.  Checking it, I see the option to Export as pdf.  Could your originators of these files use this option to help you?

Worst case scenario, perhaps: assuming not too many files and that you would be prepared to share them (or a couple of them) with me I'd be happy to try opening them and then exporting as pdf for you to test, if that would be helpful.

PM me from the forum if you're interested.

Jeff

[Chills]

Many thanks to  emmrecs01  but I think on reflection given these files were put together by amateurs and I will need to do a lot of reformatting and cleaning up of style, fonts etc. as well as fixing errors in translation that Wosven mentions I will be better off with the original text files and photos and a fresh Affinity Publisher document.
I am 99.99% certain I can get the images and if the worst comes to the worst they can cut and past the text to a word file.  It is only a 65 page document.   

I am  helping a local history group and it is non-commercial so I am doing it for love not money. This is the problem…. Paid professional work tends to be a lot easier because usually people know what they are doing and use sensible file formats….. OK… sometimes they do J

[Mcgoo4]

I have a similar question.  I was given some MS Publisher templates to use for creation of prints I need to use for miniatures (I work in scale miniatures).  In MS Pub, I just have to open the file (which contains multiple frames), right click on the frame I want, chose Format Auto Shape, Fill Effect, Picture or Texture Fill, File, and then chose the image I want to place in that frame.  Since I mainly use a Mac, I need to get these 6 or so Pub file templates into Affinity Pub, so I can make use of them.  I don't want to recreate anything if I don't have to, especially since I am Publisher illiterate (both companies' products) & what I have has been formatted and laid out correctly for my needs.  Thanks!

[walt.farrell]

30 minutes ago, Mcgoo4 said:

Since I mainly use a Mac, I need to get these 6 or so Pub file templates into Affinity Pub,

You cannot get them into Affinity Publisher in their current format. You would need to Open them in MS Publisher, export them in PDF format, Open the PDF in Affinity Publisher, and rework anything that did not carry over properly.

[Mcgoo4]

Thanks Walt.  I'll try doing that.

[timbuc2]

People can be quite rude about MS Publisher which has suffered from periods of neglect and annoyingly is Windows only. Its reputation may in part be linked to being more available to users of all experience/technical competences simply as it comes with their Office set up and Printers hating to receive .pub files which can too often be set up specifically for the quirks of the users own printer ....tsk tsk would never happen with a thousand quid app etc. The answer there was to send files over in checked high quality .pdf format to ensure what you sent is what you got 🙂

Some people will swear by using Word's DTP functionality but MS Publisher is so much less frustrating for the proper purpose

I have used MS Publisher a lot for commercial purposes but I am keen to make the switch to Affinity Publisher which - once earning curve is overcome - will I'm sure be a revealtion . I am therefore v interested in this thread and to find out/share what route works best. The options seem to be:

1. yep no DTP program's files will be read by anothers as there is so much formatting information specific to that programme. It is not MS nor Affinty Publisher's fault that neither will share the easy interchangeability of will I'm sure do better 

2. to export as high quality .pdf and import that

3. to try the various other export options within MS Publisher to see if any one works any better than t'others. I will try out. pdf vs doc

4. to get the original text and content if indeed available or manually copy over same from .pub into your new Affinity format of dreams.

Good luck all to all embarked on such a journey 🙂 

[Chills]

Yes, Publisher is Windows only.  AFAIK it was never part of the MAC version of MS Office. 
Also, the Open Source Offices never did a Publisher clone. (that should tell you a lot)
As you also point out, it suffered periods of neglect by Microsoft. In fact, most people I asked thought it had died years ago.
(talking to the print/graphic outfits in the area, also the couple of authors/writers groups I belong to.)

Most of the users I see using it have a "borrowed" Corporate Pro etc Office licence, MS Publisher was not part of the standard package.
These tend to be home users.  The only companies I see using publisher are very small outfits that do their own thing with no professional media/graphics/publishing people.

Re Point 1.   You are incorrect. Affinity and other DPT programs will read (but not save) each other's files. Affinity can read InDesign files. Actually, the Affinity suite can read most (all?) of the Adobe file formats and others.  It is just that no one reads MS Publisher files.

re Point 2 and 3 How? I don't have MS Publisher.  No one I know does.   The problem is someone, years ago, had Publisher on a PC when they did the document. The PC (and MS Publisher went) no one now has a copy of MS Publisher.  Worse there is no file converter or reader for MS Publisher (there are readers for word, Excel and PowerPoint) 
MS publisher really is the App that time, all professionals, and most other people forgot.

Re point 4: If we had the original document in almost any form bar MS Publisher, there wouldn't have been this problem in the first place.
The final alternate is to get hold of the one of the printed versions and OCR them a page at a time.

Final tip, as the above seems to be your first post here. Read the thread before posting (this is true anywhere), as most of the points you rase had already been discussed.