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Microsoft Publisher to Flipbook

A Publisher file opens in Publisher and almost nowhere else, which is the whole problem with sending one to anybody. The fix is two steps, and we would rather say it plainly: in Publisher choose File, Export, Create PDF, then upload that PDF here. Flipbooks AI turns your bulletin, newsletter or flyer into a flipbook with real page turns and one link anyone can open on a phone. Free, with no ads, no watermarks, and no limit on how many bulletins you put out.

Microsoft Publisher to Flipbook

How to Turn a Publisher File Into a Flipbook

1

Export the Publication to PDF

In Publisher choose File, Export, Create PDF or XPS Document. Pick standard or high quality so photographs stay sharp, and leave out crop marks and bleed, since those printer marks show up as lines on screen.

2

Upload and Brand It

Upload that PDF to Flipbooks AI and the flipbook builds straight away. Add your logo and colors, choose a page turn style, and put link areas over the phone number and email address on the back page.

3

Publish and Share the Link

Publish with one click. Send the link in the weekly email, embed the flipbook on your website, or print a QR code for the door. Add a password if the edition is for members only.

How to Create a Flipbook From a PUB File

How to Create a Flipbook From a PUB File

Work in Publisher exactly as you do now. When the publication is finished, check Page Design for the page size and make sure the pages are in reading order rather than laid out as a printer spread. Then choose File, Export, Create PDF, and pick the quality suited to online viewing. Come here, upload that PDF, and the flipbook builds in front of you. Add your logo and colors, drop links onto the phone number and email address, then publish and copy the link.

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What a Publisher to Flipbook Converter Does

Publisher is a layout program. You place frames, you pour text into them, and what you see on screen is what comes off the printer. That is its strength and also why nobody outside your office can read the file. This tool picks up where Publisher stops. Export the publication as a PDF, which Publisher does well, upload it here, and you get a flipbook with pages that turn, a contents list and one link that opens in any browser. Your PUB file stays as the thing you edit. The flipbook is the thing you hand out.

Convert Your Publisher File
What a Publisher to Flipbook Converter Does
What a Publisher to Flipbook Converter Does
What a Publisher to Flipbook Converter Does
What a Publisher to Flipbook Converter Does

Export to PDF From Publisher

Publisher exports PDFs properly, so this is the one part that never gives trouble. Go to File, Export, Create PDF or XPS Document, then look at the optimisation options before you save. Standard or high quality keeps your photographs sharp, while the minimum size setting will soften them in a way you notice on a big phone screen. If you have been preparing files for a commercial printer, do not send that version here: leave out crop marks and bleed, because those printer marks become visible black lines around every page of your flipbook.

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Export to PDF From Publisher

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Check the Page Size and Crop Marks

Check the Page Size and Crop Marks

Look at Page Design, Page Setup before exporting. A publication built at A4 or Letter reads well as a flipbook. One built at a custom size for a folded leaflet may need a moment of thought about how it will look as separate pages. And check the export options for anything that adds printer marks. Those exist to help a print shop trim the paper and they do nothing but clutter a screen, so a bulletin exported with them ends up framed in little crosses and lines nobody meant readers to see.

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The Problem With Sending a PUB File
The Problem With Sending a PUB File
The Problem With Sending a PUB File
The Problem With Sending a PUB File

The Problem With Sending a PUB File

Attach a PUB file to an email and most people get a document their computer does not recognise. It will not open on a phone, it will not open on a Mac, and it will not open for the volunteer who has a laptop with no Office on it. So bulletins get printed instead, or emailed as a photo of a printout, or retyped into the body of a message. Exporting to PDF and publishing a flipbook removes that whole conversation. The link opens for everyone, on anything, with no app and no account.

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Booklets, Folds and Page Order

This is the trap worth knowing about. A folded booklet prints as printer spreads, where page one sits beside page four on a single sheet, and if your publication is laid out that way the flipbook will turn two page pairs in the wrong order. What you want for a flipbook is pages in reading order, one page after another, and Publisher will export them that way when the publication is set up as a booklet rather than as one wide sheet with two pages drawn on it. If in doubt, open the PDF and read it. If it makes sense in order, so will the flipbook.

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Booklets, Folds and Page Order

Microsoft Publisher to Flipbook Alternatives

FlipHTML5

FlipHTML5

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Opens Anywhere
  • Mobile Ready
  • Tappable Contacts
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Engagement Analytics
  • Password Protection
  • Instant Sharing
  • Fast Loading
Flipbooks AI

Flipbooks AI

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Opens Anywhere
  • Mobile Ready
  • Tappable Contacts
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Engagement Analytics
  • Password Protection
  • Instant Sharing
  • Fast Loading
Flipsnack

Flipsnack

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Opens Anywhere
  • Mobile Ready
  • Tappable Contacts
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Engagement Analytics
  • Password Protection
  • Instant Sharing
  • Fast Loading
Issuu

Issuu

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Opens Anywhere
  • Mobile Ready
  • Tappable Contacts
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Engagement Analytics
  • Password Protection
  • Instant Sharing
  • Fast Loading
Fonts That Travel With the File

Fonts That Travel With the File

Publisher embeds fonts into the PDF, which is exactly what you want, because the reader on the other end almost certainly does not have the display face you used for the masthead. A small number of fonts carry licence restrictions that block embedding, and when that happens Publisher substitutes something else and your headline shifts. The way to catch it is simply to open the exported PDF and look at the front page. Nine times out of ten there is nothing to fix, and the tenth time you would much rather know before you send it.

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Features Built for Bulletins and Newsletters

These publications have a shape of their own and the tool suits it. Facing pages can be shown as a spread, the way a folded bulletin actually reads. A tap on a phone number dials it and a tap on an email address starts a message, which matters when the back page is the contact page. Readers pinch to zoom into small print, a rota or a map. You can offer the PDF as a download for whoever still prints twenty copies for the porch, and add a QR code so people scan it from a noticeboard.

Convert Your Publisher File
Features Built for Bulletins and Newsletters
Features Built for Bulletins and Newsletters
Features Built for Bulletins and Newsletters
Features Built for Bulletins and Newsletters

Pictures and Print Resolution

Photographs that were sized for print carry plenty of detail for a screen, so a bulletin exported at standard quality looks better than most things people read on a phone. Two habits help. Insert pictures at full size rather than dropping in a small image and stretching the frame, because stretching is where soft edges come from. And check the export quality setting, since the smallest file size option compresses photographs hardest and a face on the front page is the first place that shows.

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Pictures and Print Resolution
Church Bulletins Every Sunday

Church Bulletins Every Sunday

The weekly bulletin is the classic Publisher job and it fits a flipbook neatly. Publish Friday, send the link Saturday, and anyone who cannot get to the service still has the readings, the notices and the rota. Put the office phone number on the back page as a tappable link. Keep printing for the porch by all means, because plenty of the congregation prefer paper, and the link simply reaches the people who were never going to pick a copy up.

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Good for Churches, Schools and Small Shops
Good for Churches, Schools and Small Shops
Good for Churches, Schools and Small Shops
Good for Churches, Schools and Small Shops

Good for Churches, Schools and Small Shops

Publisher has always belonged to the people who make things themselves. A parish secretary laying out the Sunday bulletin on a Friday afternoon. A school office producing a half term newsletter. A shop owner making a flyer for a sale. A club putting together a season programme. None of them wants new software or a design course. They want the publication they already know how to make to reach people who do not have Publisher, which is nearly everyone.

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School Newsletters Parents Actually Read

A newsletter that arrives as an attachment gets downloaded by a fraction of parents. Sent as a link, it opens on the phone the message arrived on, which is where a parent reads everything else. Put the term dates on a page of their own, make the office email tappable, and print a QR code for the gate for the families who never see the email. The office keeps producing it in Publisher on the same afternoon as always. Only the last step changes.

Convert Your Publisher File
School Newsletters Parents Actually Read

Who Turns Publisher Files Into Flipbooks

2456+

Churches

6

Schools

13

Small Shops

24

Parish Offices

65

Clubs

9

Local Charities

Flyers and Menus for a Small Shop

Flyers and Menus for a Small Shop

Not everything is a multi page publication. A single sheet flyer, a seasonal menu, a price list or an event poster all work as a short flipbook, and the sharing is what you are really after. Put the link in a social post, print the QR code for the window, or embed it on the shop website. When the menu changes, republish and the same code on the window shows the new one, which saves reprinting the sign every time a supplier puts a price up.

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A Printed Layout That Works on a Phone

A publication designed for A4 paper is dense, and a phone screen is not A4. Flipbooks handle that in the way readers expect: swipe to turn, pinch to zoom, and pages that stay exactly as you laid them out rather than reflowing into a column and pulling your captions away from your photographs. Everything runs in the browser. Nobody installs anything, nobody signs in, and the person you sent it to is reading it about four seconds after they tapped the link.

Convert Your Publisher File
A Printed Layout That Works on a Phone
A Printed Layout That Works on a Phone
A Printed Layout That Works on a Phone
A Printed Layout That Works on a Phone

Brand the Flipbook Like the Printed Copy

A publication people recognise on paper should be recognisable on screen. Add your logo, set the viewer colors to match the ones in the layout, choose a background and pick a page turn style that suits the material. A parish can use its own colors, a school its house palette, a shop its sign colors. It takes a minute and it means the link you send looks like it came from you rather than from a converter that happened to be free.

Convert Your Publisher File
Brand the Flipbook Like the Printed Copy
Make the Contact Details Tappable

Make the Contact Details Tappable

Publisher lays out contact details as text on a page, which works beautifully on paper and does nothing on a phone. In the flipbook you can put a link area over any part of the page, so the phone number dials, the email address opens a message, the booking form opens the form and the map opens directions. This is the change that turns a notice into an action. Somebody reading the back page of a bulletin on a Sunday evening can ring the office without copying anything down.

Convert Your Publisher File
Free With No Watermark Across Your Layout
Free With No Watermark Across Your Layout
Free With No Watermark Across Your Layout
Free With No Watermark Across Your Layout

Free With No Watermark Across Your Layout

Flipbooks AI is completely free. There is no watermark over the bulletin you spent Friday afternoon on, no page limit, no cap on how many you publish and no upgrade standing between you and the useful parts. Branding, clickable contact details, password protection, sharing and analytics are all included. A parish can publish fifty two bulletins a year without a budget line for it, and a school can send every newsletter without explaining a stranger logo on the cover.

Convert Your Publisher File

What to Do If You Lose Access to Publisher

Microsoft has said Publisher is being retired, which is an uncomfortable position for anyone with fifteen years of bulletins in PUB files. The practical answer is to export the ones that matter to PDF while you still can, because a PDF opens on anything and will keep doing so. Publishing those PDFs as flipbooks gives you a readable archive as well as a backup. New issues can be laid out in whatever you move to next, and the route into this tool stays exactly the same, since it only ever wanted the PDF.

Convert Your Publisher File
What to Do If You Lose Access to Publisher

What Editors Say About the Publisher Flipbook Tool

I have laid out the Sunday bulletin in Publisher for eleven years and every year somebody asks why they cannot open the file I emailed. Exporting to PDF and publishing a flipbook solved it in an afternoon. We still print sixty for the porch, and the link reaches the people who were never going to collect one.

Marketing team
Marketing team

Product catalogs

Our school newsletter used to be an attachment that parents downloaded, or more often did not. Now it is a link that opens on their phone, the term dates page is separate, and the office email is tappable. The QR code by the gate was the part I thought was gimmicky and it turned out to be the most used.

Studio owner
Studio owner

Client lookbooks

The page order tip saved me. My leaflet was drawn as one wide sheet with two pages on it and the flipbook turned in pairs. Setting it up as a proper booklet in Publisher fixed the export, and now the pages turn one at a time exactly as the folded copy reads.

School office
School office

Newsletters and programmes

With Publisher being retired I spent a weekend exporting fifteen years of parish newsletters to PDF. Publishing them as flipbooks gave us an archive anyone can read on a phone, and the parish website now links the last twelve issues from a single page instead of a pile of files.

Independent designer
Independent designer

Portfolio flipbooks

Keep a Members Only Edition Private

Keep a Members Only Edition Private

Some editions are not for the open web. A parish directory with addresses in it, a staff briefing, a members handbook, a newsletter that names children. Put a password on that flipbook and give it only to the group it belongs to. You can turn off downloading so it is read in place rather than saved and forwarded, and the file is hosted securely rather than living in a public folder. It is a sensible boundary, and for anything with personal details in it, the right default.

Convert Your Publisher File

Share It as a Link or a QR Code on the Door

Once it is published, getting it to people is the easy part. Send the link in the weekly email, put it in a message group, or embed the flipbook on the parish or school website so the current issue always sits at the same address. Print a QR code for the church door, the school gate or the shop window and people scan it into their own phone in the time it takes to walk past. Add a password when an edition is for members only.

Convert Your Publisher File
Share It as a Link or a QR Code on the Door
Share It as a Link or a QR Code on the Door
Share It as a Link or a QR Code on the Door
Share It as a Link or a QR Code on the Door

Loads Fast on an Older Phone

The audience for a parish bulletin or a school newsletter is not a room full of new phones on fast connections. Flipbooks are compressed and load one page at a time, so the first page appears while the rest arrives behind it, and an older handset on a weak signal still gets there. That is worth more than any feature on this page. A document that takes fifteen seconds to appear gets closed, and the person who closed it does not come back to try again.

Convert Your Publisher File
Loads Fast on an Older Phone

Compare Bulletin and Newsletter Tools

ApplicationRatingUnlimited CreditsUsage RatingDescription
10/10Yes1

Flipbooks AI turns an exported Publisher PDF into an unlimited free flipbook with no watermarks, real page turns, tappable phone numbers and emails, QR code sharing, password protection and reading analytics. Made for parish offices, school offices and small shops.

FlipHTML5

5.2/10No2

FlipHTML5 is a capable flipbook maker with a large template library and an editor most people find familiar. Its free tier adds branding and limits, and the reading statistics a newsletter editor would want need a paid plan.

Publuu

7.1/10No3

Publuu produces clean flipbooks quickly and its link tracking is genuinely good. The parts a weekly publisher relies on, including detailed statistics and longer documents, sit behind a paid account.

Issuu

8.3/10No4

Issuu is a long established publishing platform with discovery built into it. The free tier carries Issuu branding and upload caps, so a bulletin published under only your parish name usually means a subscription.

Heyzine

6.4/10No5

Heyzine has a friendly editor and some of the nicest page turn effects in this category. Free accounts limit how many flipbooks you keep and carry branding, with better reporting reserved for paid plans.

Flipsnack

7.8/10No6

Flipsnack is strong on commerce and lead capture, which suits a retail catalog more than a Sunday bulletin. Free use is restricted, and removing branding or unlocking statistics moves you to a monthly plan.

Canva

6.9/10No7

Canva is a genuinely good replacement for laying out a newsletter if you are leaving Publisher, with templates that save a lot of time. Its flipbook viewing is basic, without tappable link areas over a printed layout or reading analytics.

Microsoft Publisher

8.1/10No8

Publisher is excellent at what it was built for, which is putting frames on a page and getting them to the printer. It publishes nothing online: no link, no page turns, no analytics, and the PUB file itself opens almost nowhere else.

Adobe InDesign

6.5/10No9

InDesign is the professional tool for this kind of layout and its PDF export is the best there is. It needs a subscription and real practice, and it has no built in flipbook or sharing, so a parish volunteer is rarely the right user for it.

Printed Bulletin Only

7.6/10No10

Printing is still the right answer for part of any congregation and always will be. On its own it reaches only the people who were in the building, costs money every week, and cannot be corrected once the copies are stacked by the door.

How This Differs From a Word or Docs Export

How This Differs From a Word or Docs Export

Worth naming, because the two steps look identical and the preparation is not. Word and Google Docs reflow text, so the work before exporting is about headings, page breaks and margins. Publisher does not reflow anything: it is frames on a page, so what you see is what exports, and the things that go wrong are print specific instead. Page order in a folded booklet, crop marks left on from a print job, a font that will not embed. That is why this page talks about those and the document pages talk about headings.

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See How Many People Opened This Week
See How Many People Opened This Week
See How Many People Opened This Week
See How Many People Opened This Week

See How Many People Opened This Week

Paper tells you how many copies went, not how many were read. A flipbook tells you how many people opened this issue, which pages they stayed on and where they stopped. That is useful in a practical, unglamorous way. If the rota page gets three times the attention of anything else, put it earlier. If nobody reaches page six, the newsletter is a page too long. It also gives a committee something better than a hunch when they ask whether the newsletter is worth the effort.

Convert Your Publisher File

Build an Archive of Past Issues

Publish each issue as its own flipbook and within a year you have an archive nobody had to build. A parish can link the last dozen bulletins from one page of its website. A school can keep every newsletter of the year in order. A shop can show the last three seasonal menus. They cost nothing to keep and open on any device, which is more than can be said for a shelf of paper copies or a folder of PUB files on a computer that will be replaced.

Convert Your Publisher File
Build an Archive of Past Issues

Frequently Asked
Microsoft Publisher to Flipbook

Can I upload a PUB file directly?

Not directly. Export the publication to PDF first, using File, Export, Create PDF or XPS Document, then upload that PDF. It takes about half a minute and it is what makes the layout open on phones, Macs and computers with no Office installed, which a PUB file never does.

Why does my flipbook show two pages at once?

Because the publication was probably laid out as a printer spread, with two pages drawn on one wide sheet. Set the publication up as a booklet so Publisher exports pages in reading order, or design at single page size. Open the exported PDF and read it: if it flows correctly there, it will in the flipbook.

Do I lose quality exporting Publisher to PDF?

Not if you choose the right setting. Standard or high quality keeps photographs sharp on a phone screen. The minimum file size option compresses images hardest and it shows on faces, so avoid it for anything with a photograph on the cover.

Is the Publisher to flipbook converter free?

Yes, completely free. No watermarks, no page limits and no cap on how many flipbooks you publish. Branding, tappable contact details, password protection, sharing and analytics are all included, which is why a parish can publish a bulletin every week without a budget for it.

Will my fonts look right for the reader?

Almost always. Publisher embeds fonts into the PDF, so a reader with none of your fonts still sees your layout. A few licence restricted fonts refuse to embed and get substituted, so open the exported PDF and check the masthead before you publish.

Can readers tap the phone number and email?

Yes. Add link areas over the contact details and a tap dials the number or starts an email, and the same works for a booking form or a map. It is the single change that turns the back page of a bulletin from information into something someone acts on.

What if I no longer have Microsoft Publisher?

Any PDF you have already exported still works here, which is a good reason to export your back catalogue while you can. New publications can be laid out in whatever you move to, since this tool only ever needed a PDF and does not care which program made it.

Can I keep an edition private to members?

Yes. Put a password on that flipbook and share it only with the group it is meant for, and turn off downloading if you would rather it was not saved and passed on. For a directory or anything naming children, that is the setting to start with.

Have more questions?

If you still have questions or want to explore more details about our features, limitations, and usage, we invite you to visit our full FAQ page.

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