Robb's Not Real Impressed With Micorosft Publisher
I use it for business cards, flyers, newsletters, and other lightweight desktop publishing projects. Microsoft Publisher is OK for quick …
Starting at $139 one time purchase
View PricingOverview
What is Microsoft Publisher?
Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application available with an Office 365 subscription, or as a standalone download.
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Pricing
Microsoft Publisher
$139
On Premise
one time purchase
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Microsoft Publisher?
Microsoft Publisher Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application available with an Office 365 subscription, or as a standalone download.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.
The most common users of Microsoft Publisher are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(43)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
July 21, 2022
Robb's Not Real Impressed With Micorosft Publisher
I use it for business cards, flyers, newsletters, and other lightweight desktop publishing projects. Microsoft Publisher is OK for quick and easy desktop publishing projects. It's useful because we have a lot of Microsoft Publisher boilerplate built up over the years so we can just take a previous project and repurpose it. When used that way it's time-efficient and cost-effective. It is not our first choice for new projects that demands detail and real creative energy.
- Business cards
- Internal memos that use a logo or a little bit of design.
- Quick and simple flyers for internal events.
- Formatting in general. It's a pain to refine a layout in Publisher in my opinion.
- Microsoft is so invested in their approach to software and making it look and feel like an Office 365 application that they inadvertantly cripple applications like Publisher.
- Earlier versions of Publisher gave you a lot more latitude and creative freedom. They were also much easier to work with. Not everything has to look like it's part of Office 365. They did the same ... thing to Access.
- It's very cheap since it is part of Office 365.
- Since we have years of experience with Publisher and a lot of boilerplate, we can turn some documents over quickly.
- Because it is part of Office 365 we have familiarity with the interface.
- It's a sunk cost so on easy projects there's a positive ROI.
- Because it's not very good at creating long and/or complex documents we needed to obtain other applications to create long and/or complex documents.
- It's just so not essential to what we do that the positive or negative ROI is negligible.
At the time I was not impressed with Quark Xpress. I always disliked PageMaker. I always considered it over-rated. I like InDesign and have always liked InDesign, if I have a need for more complex documents I'll go with InDesign over Publisher or Quark Xpress in a heartbeat. InDesign is just a better platform for longer, more complex documents.
Yes
Adobe InDesign. At the time it was cheaper and easier to work with. It was easier to train people on simple jobs including; one-page flyers, banners, and short documents that needed styling, and graphics. Microsoft Publisher had a smaller footprint and worked faster. The only other option was Quark Xpress which was a very good app on the Mac but performed like a total slug on a PC.
- Price
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
Price, price, price. There was no good reason to spend a few hundred additional dollars on InDesign when it was only going to be used for small jobs. Clients would flinch when they saw the price for Adobe InDesign but had absolutely no problem paying for Microsoft Publisher. It was also cheaper for a client to pay me to train their staff since it took a lot less time.
Since there were only three viable options in the late '90s I wouldn't change anything at all. What software developers don't quite understand is that small businesses look at price first and total usability last. InDesign was/is an excellent desktop publishing platform but most small businesses and/or small departments did not need most of its capabilities.
April 26, 2022
Simple Program that Creates Fantastic Results!
I use Microsodt Publisher to create quick signs or flyers. As a construction company, there is always something that we need to create quickly that is specific to one job or client. This program allows me to create and save templates that I can customize to each job, or I can start from scratch and put something together in minutes that looks professional for our client.
- Importing photos to insert into flyers or documents.
- Creating quick signs for either directions or safety at jobsites so the superintendents can have them right away.
- There is a wealth of pre-loaded shapes, fonts, and clip arts that allows for a professional looking document without having to have a graphic design degree to figure it out.
- Overall I don't have any issues using this program.
- The ability to import photos and logos for each specific client.
- The ease of adding text boxes, images, etc. to create balanced and professional-looking flyers or brochures.
- The ability to import client-specific fonts/colors in order to personalize to each individual job.
- The ability to create and save templates for use on future projects.
- I have been able to create flyers and brochures that in the past we sent out to a marketing company and spent a ton of money on something I was able to do myself in minutes.
- The quick and simple user experience has allowed us to create signs that are designed to keep people safe on our job sites. This is important because we take safety very seriously and sometimes need to be able to produce these signs in a matter of minutes so that the superintendent can safely mark off areas to avoid.
- The program has taken the place of Word and Excel in many cases to make documents like proposals look more balanced and professional.
July 30, 2021
Great for basic needs
There is access to Microsoft Publisher for every employee, but it is not used by everyone. I mainly used it to [create] invitations, certificates, or posters advertising events at the college. It was easy to use, had templates that made it easy to create whatever document I was trying to create. And once I had made, for example, one certificate it was easy to just change the information and use it again and again.
- The templates are great
- It’s very user friendly for anyone familiar with Microsoft suite
- It’s easier to manipulate images on your workspace than using Microsoft word
- More options or more blank templates
- User friendly
- Easy to master
- Comes with the Microsoft suite
- It’s just been helpful to create some basic documents
Microsoft Publisher is more for beginners, or for basic needs, anyone with some familiarity with the Microsoft suite should be able to use it easily. If you’re looking to create something more graphic and advanced, you’d probably want to look into something like InDesign, which is not as user friendly if you’re not familiar with it at all. For basic needs the average employee should be able to use Microsoft Publisher with ease.
March 18, 2020
Microsoft Publisher is simple and sleek!
I use Microsoft Publisher for all of my newsletters and reports as well as invitations and ads.
- Extremely user-friendly.
- Easily converts to image files and PDF.
- Simple maneuverability.
- Less expensive alternative to high-end graphics programs.
- Would like more built-in graphics.
- Would like smaller file size.
- Would like the ability to curve text.
- Fantastic looking publisher pieces without high cost software.
- Efficient for productivity.
- No real learning curve.
I have also used Adobe PageMaker for desktop publishing and simple design work but have found Publisher to be so much simpler to use. The navigation is easy, the interface is clean and the program is intuitive for even the most novice of users. The templates that come along with Publisher are also far better than PageMaker's.
February 03, 2020
Microsoft Publisher Simple to Use
I use Microsoft Publisher to create course flyers. Microsoft Publisher is used on an individual basis across the organization.
- Easy create newsletters and flyers
- Many templates to choose from
- It doesn't have similar layout as other Microsoft applications such as Word and PowerPoint.
- A little expensive compared to publishing software.
- Less time consuming
I think Microsoft Publisher a correctly used to create invitation cards, flyers, and newsletters with the ability to choose from various templates. This feature is not available in Adobe Acrobat DC.