It seems odd to say I am mourning the loss of a computer program. But, with Microsoft eliminating Publisher at the end of September, I find I am. More so, I am mourning the loss of my work.
I am mourning the loss of decades of work forever frozen in PDF or in files that can not be opened. Hundreds, thousands of hours of writing and re-writing, layout, editing, cropping and fine-tuning
Frustration
Tears
Dried out contacts
Missed meals
and finally, Joy or even Glee upon completing a publication.
I estimate 70 to 80 percent of my work is in Publisher. Prior to recent years as spreadsheets have dominated my “day job” life, that number was much higher. For a little more than a quarter century, I have used Publisher to create workshop handouts, patterns, templates, little pamphlets, holiday freebies, e-books, and full workbooks.
For each publication, I have bits and pieces of thought, layers of process to get from an idea, a vision to come together into something presentable. The space around a Publisher page filled with fragments – photos, illustrations, passages that belong somewhere. Often five versions of a title waiting for me to decide which I like. That vast gray space acted as a worktable and an extension of my brain at the same time.
While I mourn the loss of my thought process for completed materials, I mourn my incomplete projects more. I have countless projects laid out in Publisher, incomplete spread across pages waiting for me to find the time to return to fill in the rest. Among them:
- Children’s Quilted Winter Hoods (This is a skeleton half formed)
- Pieced & Patchwork Pockets (A publication I planned for this summer)
- An Ongoing Study in Winter Hoods (A comprehensive volume on my work with winter hoods)
- A publication on dolls used in sewing accessories
- The 1840-1850s straw bonnet workbook
- The 1880s capote bonnet workbook
I’ve been trying to save what I can. But, the reality is these materials saved as PDFs or page jpgs might as well be lost because they are not longer in a format that can be easily pieced back together. Quality is lost. The skeleton of the project is lost.
Each will need to be started again from scratch… after I choose, pay for, and learn a new platform/program.
In the end, losing Publisher and not being able to easily open decades of my work feels much like moth-balling a program, be it the end of a literacy program, or a summer camp. I am sad. I feel loss. I mourn.
Empathize with your issues with the loss of your application for your writing and creative projects ….. am a long time subscriber and have purchased your patterns……. here is a recommendation for a new program for writing…….. https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview …… this is where I put all my writing projects …… love what you do and sending you “calm” as you continue with your work….. my mantra is “This or Better” and have found that good things can come from “disaster.”
Hugs
Dr. Patti Williams, Author
I completely understand your mourning over the loss of Publisher. My trusty Win 7 computer died last month. I know it was nearly 20 years old, but it had everything I needed. When transferring my data to my new Windows 11 machine, the computer guy told me that I would not be able to have Publisher because it was being discontinued as of this month. I was horrified! What about all the booklets and handouts I had made for herb classes I teach and other classes and workshops I have taught in the past? I could not fathom the idea that I wouldn’t be able to access them or edit them ever again. My solution? I went on a search for the 2021 version of Office Professional Plus, which is the last full install of MS Office that contained Publisher. I found it brand new and inexpensive at Walmart and several other places. I installed it and it works beautifully. I don’t care that it will be “unsupported”. I know how to do what I need it for and if the “help” does go away, I have worked with outdated software for so long on my old computer that I know how to google how to do something in an older version and figure it out. I hope you will be able to find a solution that works for you so you don’t have to start from scratch on all your pending projects.
I was looking for a stand-alone version of Publisher. I will look for the MS Professional Office Plus. I wonder if I install that on my old laptop if it will work (the laptop itself.)