How to Convert Publisher Documents to Powerpoint

PowerPoint and Publisher are two very different programs. Because of that, files created in one program aren’t always compatible with the other.

Converting Publisher documents to Powerpoint can get the job done in situations where you need to share information between coworkers or between programs, but do it wrong and you could end up losing quality, damaging information or even introducing new mistakes into your content.

Let’s take a look at how to convert Publisher documents to Powerpoint right so you don’t have to worry about any setbacks.

What is Publisher documents

Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It’s similar to Word in that it’s designed for creating documents, but it has additional features and tools for laying out pages and creating more complex designs. You can create newsletters, flyers, brochures, and other marketing materials with Publisher.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoint for $14 million three months after it appeared. This was Microsoft’s first significant acquisition, and Microsoft set up a new business unit for PowerPoint in Silicon Valley where it remained for the next 17 years. The current version for Windows is PowerPoint 2019.

Steps to convert publisher documents to Powerpoint

If you have a Microsoft Publisher document that you want to use as a PowerPoint presentation, there’s good news: you can convert it. Here’s how:

1. Open the Publisher document that you want to convert.
2. Click File, click Save As, and then click PowerPoint Presentation.
3. In the File name box, type a name for the presentation, and then click Save.
4. Congrats! your Publisher document has now been saved as a Powerpoint.

To open the saved presentation in PowerPoint,

1. Double-click the file name.
2. Choose the Open option if you see a message that says, this file will be converted when opened.
3. Choose Yes or No if prompted by another message saying, the original publisher document will be deleted.
4. If you select Yes, the original document is deleted.
5. If prompted by another message asking, do you want to save this presentation? Select an answer to indicate whether you want to save your changes or not.
6. When PowerPoint finishes converting your .pub file into a .ppt presentation, choose one of these options: (1) Close without saving; (2) Close with saving; (3) Keep both files (.pub and .ppt); or (4) Cancel conversion.

The steps are different if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7:

1. Right-click on the file, and then click Open With.
2. Click Choose Program from the dropdown menu, and then browse for PowerPoint 2007 on your computer.
3. Finally, click Open. You’ll see a Convert PowerPoint to Word screen.
4. Select Finish & Merge to Creates a merged version of your Word document and converts it back to PDF.
5. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat software installed on your computer.

Note that, you won’t lose any formatting during the process but you may lose any tracked changes made in Word before exporting because PDFs don’t support this feature