Microsoft Writer will wave goodbye in 2026

TL;DR: Microsoft has introduced the top of life for Writer. The basic desktop publishing program will likely be supported for 2 extra years, then customers might want to discover options for creating personalized calendars and design templates.

Looking for some unspecified “new advantages” and alternatives for patrons, Microsoft will retire its Writer program in 2026. The corporate will nonetheless assist the software program till October 2026, the official announcement says, and customers can anticipate the identical expertise they’re having fun with right now till then.

Microsoft Writer began as a humble desktop publishing newcomer in 1991 when this system supplied a “low-cost” method to create customized designs within the Home windows 3.0 working surroundings. This system started its transition to full 32-bit working programs in 1995 (Writer for Home windows 95), and it grew to become a part of the Microsoft Workplace productiveness suite quickly after that (Microsoft Writer 97).

In comparison with a conventional phrase processor like Microsoft Phrase, Writer places the emphasis on the event of recent web page layouts and graphic designs. Microsoft highlights some widespread Writer utilization situations, which embrace the creation of “professionally branded” templates, envelope and label printing, personalized calendars, enterprise playing cards, and extra.

These sorts of design jobs can now be managed in different functions and apps accessible within the Microsoft 365 package deal, Redmond says, stating that Writer customers ought to make use of Phrase, PowerPoint or Designer to attain related outcomes. Microsoft Create additionally gives a wide array of customizable templates, the corporate states.

Writer was certainly by no means conceived as a full substitute for desktop publishing heavyweights like Adobe InDesign, however this system achieved some recognition amongst newbie designers engaged on the Home windows platform. Writer saves initiatives in its proprietary .pub format, a truth that might present some compatibility complications after 2026.

Microsoft Writer additionally supplies assist for added codecs such because the Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF). In the meantime, third-party desktop publishing applications and productiveness suites similar to LibreOffice and Corel Draw have offered a .pub import characteristic for fairly a while now.

Customers may, nevertheless, nonetheless expertise some vital compatibility points, if an imported design challenge makes use of some obscure Writer characteristic which isn’t but supported by their desktop publishing program of alternative. The newest stand-alone editions of Writer have been launched in 2021 (Microsoft Writer 2021, Model 2311), that are the identical instruments accessible as part of the Microsoft 365 package deal.