[5] Publisher is included in higher-end editions of Microsoft Office, reflecting Microsoft's emphasis on the application as an easy-to-use and less expensive alternative to the "heavyweights" with a focus on the small-business market, where firms do not have dedicated design professionals available to make marketing materials and other documents.

[6][7] However, it has a relatively small share of the desktop publishing market, which is dominated by Adobe InDesign and formerly by QuarkXPress.

This date will mark the end of Publisher as a standalone Microsoft program since its initial release in 1991.

Several applications can import Publisher's proprietary file format (.pub) for editing with some success, including Collabora Online,[11] LibreOffice,[12] and Scribus.

[13] Another option is to save the document as a separate EPS file for each individual page in the publication, and to then open the EPS files in the aforementioned applications or other applications.