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Thread ID: 79937 2007-06-06 06:56:00 Microsoft Publisher - freeware alternatives? camo (4895) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
556579 2007-06-06 06:56:00 Howdy,

Got a company laptop, but they haven't given me Publisher, which I really need temporarily.

Is there a freeware alternative of Publisher? I have tried OpenOffice.org, but I don't think that comes bundled with a publishing app.

Have you tried any? Can you point me in the right direction? Compatibility with .pub files is desirable, but not entirely essential.

C
camo (4895)
556580 2007-06-06 07:11:00 Howdy,

Got a company laptop, but they haven't given me Publisher, which I really need temporarily.

Is there a freeware alternative of Publisher? I have tried OpenOffice.org, but I don't think that comes bundled with a publishing app.

Have you tried any? Can you point me in the right direction? Compatibility with .pub files is desirable, but not entirely essential.

C

I think you will find that Publisher files are proprietary to Microsoft and won't work in their native format outside of MS Publisher which is fortunate for the rest of the publishing industry. :p

What are you trying to create?

I am about to try Gimp although I don't know if it contains layout capabilities. I think it is more for photos and illustration. As far as I know there are NO free layout apps available. There are a lot of professional layout apps that you have to pay for such as InDesign (Adobe) or Quark or older versions of Freehand which is also very good, but they all cost $$$

I have InDesign and Freehand.
winmacguy (3367)
556581 2007-06-06 07:32:00 Scribus (http://www.scribus.net/) is very good. Open source. vinref (6194)
556582 2007-06-06 07:38:00 Serif PagePlus is quite good. There is an (older) freeware version too. The Pom (3464)
556583 2007-06-06 07:54:00 90% of what you do in Publisher, you can do in Word.

Its a waste of a product.
netchicken (4843)
556584 2007-06-06 08:27:00 But Publisher is wonderful. You get such a nice presentation that you don't need any content. :D Graham L (2)
556585 2007-06-06 08:31:00 90% of what you do in Publisher, you can do in Word.

Its a waste of a product. Agreed!

Word was probably built on Publisher and added extra features and abilities to make it Word. OR Publisher is a stripped out version of Word with a skin... :lol:
The_End_Of_Reality (334)
556586 2007-06-06 08:54:00 90% of what you do in Publisher, you can do in Word.

Its a waste of a product.

Never a truer word has been said. :) (except for the bit about what you can do in Word)

Or Publisher was just Microsofts failed attempt at getting into the desktop publishing market.
Many years ago as desktop publishing was coming of age, Microsoft and Adobe had both produced code for the postscripting process which allows the RIP to interpret the data of an image file into something that can be printed on paper. Fortunately Adobe's Postsript language won the day and is the standard of the printing industry today.
winmacguy (3367)
556587 2007-06-06 08:59:00 Publisher 95 was good, tell it to create the paper plane then choose the option for AM/FM radio. It tells you that of course "the plane is just paper, what do you think you're doing trying to stick a radio on it!!!" Agent_24 (57)
556588 2007-06-06 09:04:00 Publisher is so bad (to quote Metla,)it "blows goats"

Metla didn't actually say that about Publisher as such, he said it about some other application.
winmacguy (3367)
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