Opening Microsoft Publisher Files in InDesign
As more and more people start relying on our favorite page-layout program, the question is bound to come up: How do I open a Microsoft Publisher file in Adobe InDesign? In the past, the only solution I could offer was to open the file in PageMaker for Windows (you’d need a free converter from Adobe to do this; you can find more information on this page), then save it as a PageMaker file and open that in InDesign. But not only did that require PM, but it only worked with Publisher 95 and 97 files.
Now there are two other methods you might consider. First, you could export the file from Publisher as a PDF file and use Recosoft’s PDF2ID plug-in. That will attempt to keep the look and feel the same, though you’ll almost certainly have to do some cleanup in InDesign.
Another option is Markzware’s new PUB2ID. (Why do all these plug-in names make me feel like I’m watching THX 1138?) Note that PUB2ID hasn’t been released yet; it’s just in beta. But if you need this kind of thing, and are willing to give Markzware some feedback, give it a shot! Let us know what you think.
(Personally, I’m pleased to say that I don’t have a single Publisher file on my computer, or else I’d try it myself.) 
Wow, sounds very interesting. This is one of the few reasons I use Windows and Office Virtualized via Parallels on my Mac. I personally Hate, no HATE Microsoft Publisher but I have clients who will send me documents in that format or people in my networking groups so if I have to repost stuff on the web or redistribute the files for them I will convert them to PDF via free PDF converter in Windows (no sense in paying for Acrobat twice on the same machine). If I could open Publisher files in InDesign in OSX I would be one step closer to dumping my virtual Windows Install.
In the interest of keeping things as accurate as possible, the publication converter that ships with PM 7.0 will convert Publisher 2000 files.
That said, back in the olden days when I tried this I had very little in the way of success.
I’m sure the Markzware plugin is going save quite a few headaches.
I have had a little success (more than none, but definetly not a reliable workaround) with opening the publisher document, selecting all, copying - then pasting into an Illustrator (it keeps all those wonderful clip art images vector). Granted there is some cleanup afterwords, such as replacing all the fonts with the find font feature… and then you can make the spot colors what ever you need them… Hope this helps someone out there.
-ctb
I just PDF the Document and open it in Illustrator. Clean it up a bit, drag individual elements to InDesign and text and things like that. Although the text does not follow a logical path in columns/tables etc. It’s easily edited within Illustrator though. I think.
But I have to say the last thing I got to do in Publisher was absolutely rubbishly designed, as expected, so I just exported the text to RTF or something similar… and then imported to InDesign. Not fantastic workaround. But it’s from Publisher, so not bad.
We bought PDF2ID… it converts pdf-documents, but clean-up is needed. And some documents really need what you might call… spring cleaning! But if you have no other way… it’s nice not have to do the layout once again from scratch. But… bear in mind, this is only first version of the plug-in - improvement is expected in an updated version.
A publisher to indesign plugin sounds nice - but my guess is, it’ll need cleaning too. Sometimes you’ll get a job in publisher, and the customer, who spend a lot of time building it, will often expect it to look as he or she did it, and not have to approve the document once again.
The safest way I think… lean publisher, convert it to pdf - and print it. But I could be wrong… I hope!
Best regards
HanZZZen
I have always enjoyed the fact that I couldn’t open Publisher files. I made sure I didn’t install the filter in Pagemaker. Typycal Publisher users fancy themselves to be designers and are very happy with what they’ve created. I could say, “Sorry, we have no way to open or import your document. Please send plain text or unformatted Word file, and we’ll work something up for you.” That way, I didn’t have to deal with the politics of staff members of clients who think what they created is great.
The Solution
After a lot of experimenting, take a hard copy, scan it in, get the photos and text supplied (MS Word & Jpegs etc) and start the job from scratch. This is the FASTEST way and least fustrating. Trust me. with regards to opening the pdf in illustrator…dodgy unless it was created in Illustrator.
Denis
Want to get all text and graphics easily out of Publisher (and a whole lot of other) programmes?
I use FileJuicer
http://echoone.com/filejuicer/
You may need to get rid of a bit of rubbish at the top and bottom of the file.
Even Leopard ready.
No - I have no affiliation with them.
Publisher is no problem…print postscript to PDF, use Pitstop to tweak, such as convert RGB images to CMYK. With Pitstop, you can make it rain during drought…lol
Sorry to interupt but i got a problem with Pdf2Id myself and hope you can help me.
Sometimes when I use Pdf2id, my pictures in Indesign becomes text. Someone knows why, and how I can fix it?
Wow, that’s kind of strange, Linda. I encourage you to contact tech support at recosoft.com about that. I know that they’ve just moved to a new office so they’re a bit behind in responding, but they’re usually very responsive.
“That way, I didn’t have to deal with the politics of staff members of clients who think what they created is great.”
WOW “Laberday”… how incredibly elitist of you to think that just because someone is using a sub-standard tool, that their work is automatically junk. Last time I checked, owning the best tools doesn’t make someone an “artist”. Maybe, just MAYBE someone that works in Publisher or another sub-par DTP application might just design something even better than a “master” such as yourself. Climb down off your high horse. YOU might think your work is “all that” because you use Adobe. Others probably think its average at best, or complete crap. Have a nice day! =)
Patrick, you make a good point: Someone using Publisher or Word could create a beautiful layout. It’s the designer, not the tool! That said, I think you have agree that the vast majority of people using those programs are not doing great design.
The best way to convert MS Publisher files to InDesign is to save your publisher document as a Publisher 2000 format. Then, using the tool that will install on your computer titled Converter for Microsoft Publisher & QuarkExpress that comes with the demo version of Adobe Pagemaker 7.0 will convert the document for you beautifully. I haven’t really seen a need for cleaning up after conversion. Hopefully this will help. No need to buy third party software to successfully complete this task.