How to Convert Publisher to InDesign

Microsoft Publisher and Adobe InDesign are two popular choices for designing magazines, newspapers, flyers, and posters. Can these apps work together?

In this brief walkthrough, we’ve shared how to convert Publisher to InDesign, and vice versa, so you can work between the two design programs.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to perform this conversion task without a paid plug-in. Here are the two best options on the market today:

Pub2ID: Developed by Markzware, Pub2ID is a commercial plugin that can convert Publisher files to InDesign. It aims to preserve as many elements as possible, including fonts, links, layers, etc. The cost of this plugin is quite high ($199), making it a tool primarily for professional designers who need to streamline their workflow.
PDF2ID: This plugin converts PDF files to InDesign. As Publisher allows for exporting to PDF, this plugin can serve as a workaround for conversion. PDF2ID endeavors to reconstruct the PDF in InDesign, preserving tables, graphic layouts, and text boxes. It comes in three versions – Lite ($99), Standard ($199), and Professional ($299), allowing users to choose based on their needs.

Open the InDesign document you wish to convert, navigate to “File” > “Save As,” and choose “Adobe PDF” as your file type. Click “Save.”
Open Adobe Acrobat (or a free alternative), select “File” > “Open,” find the PDF file you just saved, and open it.
In Acrobat, go to “File” > “Export To” > “Microsoft Word” > “Word Document.” Choose where you want to save the file, then click “Save.”
Open Microsoft Publisher and start a new document by selecting “File” > “New.”
In Publisher, there’s no direct option to “Import Word Document” in the “File” menu. Instead, navigate to “Insert” > “Text Box”, draw a text box on your document where you want the text to appear. Then go to “Insert” > “Text File”, find your Word document, and click “OK.”

Cover image via Mehaniq