Word/PowerPoint are not suitable replacements for Publisher
I’m writing following the guidance that Word and PowerPoint can be used as replacements for Publisher. This feedback is based on completing a real production document, not theoretical use Having just completed a fairly complex, layout-heavy technical document, I thought it only fair to share how that works in practice. In theory, I can see the logic: Word handles documents PowerPoint handles layouts Therefore, between the two, everything should be covered Unfortunately, in reality, this appears to be more of a theoretical exercise than a practical solution. Publisher was clearly designed for: Fixed, page-based layouts Precise positioning of objects Efficient alignment of mixed content (text, images, tables) Producing consistent, professional multi-page documents By comparison: Word is admirably committed to reminding you that it would prefer everything to flow freely, regardless of whether you want it to or not PowerPoint, while better behaved, does seem to assume every page is a standalone slide rather than part of a structured document Both tools can, with enough persistence, be persuaded into doing the job. However, this involves a level of manual intervention, workaround, and general negotiation with the software that feels somewhat at odds with modern productivity software. To put it simply: They are not replacements in any meaningful, real-world sense. The end result can be achieved, but the process is unnecessarily time-consuming, fragile, and prone to unexpected layout changes—particularly when precision actually matters. Replacing a purpose-built publishing tool with two applications that were never designed for that role gives the impression that this use case has been… optimistically simplified. I would strongly encourage Microsoft to either: Provide a genuine page-layout solution within the Office suite, or Enhance existing applications so they can support fixed-layout publishing without constant workarounds At present, the gap left by Publisher is very noticeable for anyone producing structured documents beyond basic text. I appreciate the direction of Microsoft 365 overall, but in this particular area, the experience feels less like an evolution and more like working around a missing tool. Regards Andy
Cannot install addins
I am a Microsoft 365 Personal user. When I try to add the Claude for Excel Addin (for the Desktop version of Excel), I get an error: "Error loading add-ins. One or more add-ins failed to load. See your add-ins.". However, this is not specific to the Claude addin, since every addin gives the same error. When I click on the My-Addins option and then "refresh", I get another error: "Access denied to catalog." Signing in and out of Office does not fix the issue. Clearing the Office 365 cache did not fix the problem. The issue extends to Powerpoint and Word as well. I cannot add any addins to the web versions of Office either. Interestingly, if I download an XML manifest file, I can use the "Manage my addins" option in the web versions of Office 365 to manually add the addins. But still no luck with the Desktop versions. Anyone have any thoughts on how to fix this? Do I need to manually reinstall Office 365? I also noticed that the "Get Add-ins" button in "Account" settings is disabled.
Is there an acceptable method to convert pub to docx?
Unfortunately Microsoft has decided to end Publisher. So users are forced to find methods both for archiving old files and converting current files to be able to continue working. For the first PDF will most likely be the easiest. For the second I've been trying to find a converter. This proves to be a challenge. And the results have been very unsatisfactory so far. My main publication is a brochure which is printed double-sided on A4 paper, stapled and then folded to A5 size. The publication contains 99% text boxes (with formatted text) and pictures. Here and there a shape like a horizontal line. All things that Word definitely supports. So converting it should be a no-brainer - at least I thought so. Of course Publisher can save as DOCX. Unfortunately the function only supports plain text. So the text boxes are removed, which means a lot of manual rework. Also the text isn't converted continuously. For exapmle the text that was on the first sheet in my Publisher file, ended up on page 5 in Word. Bottom line: not acceptable. Microsoft therefore don't even refer to that save function in their official communication to Publisher retirement. They suggest a workaround instead: save the file as a PDF and open it with Word. The suggestion is embarrassing enough, since it implies that Microsoft are unable to provide suitable conversion between their own formats. I tested it anyway. But the layout ends up in Word in a way that requires a lot of manual rework. Tab stops are partially removed, page margins are shifted. The pagination is also incorrect, so that some pages are half empty. Bottom line: not acceptable. Also tried some online converters. Unfortunately the results haven't been satisfying either. Most of them convert text boxes into shapes with integrated text boxes. And even worse: big text boxes are often split into several smaller boxes. In any case there still remains a lot of manual rework. Bottom line: halfway acceptable. Disappoiting Conclusion: At present, I consider it the best option to rebuild the file from scratch in Word using Copy-Paste. If someone knows a better method, would be happy to hear about it.
Font support issues for equations in Word
Although you can change the font for equations in Word, there are some issues with how they display. When an equation occupies an entire line, the spacing above and below it looks odd and becomes extremely wide. Currently, fonts like STIX and Latin Modern do not render well; only the default Cambria font maintains proper line spacing. This is extremely inconvenient for users who need to use other mathematical fonts, as many require Times-style mathematical fonts.Disable incessant nagware popups
I don't know about everyone else, but I am sick and tired of the nagware pop ups in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Every single product harasses me with pop ups trying to tell me "hey, did you know this feature was here?", "you can do this if you click that", "let me hold your hand through using products you've used for decades even though you don't want daddy Microslop to do that". This is a prime example. I keep getting the same ones again and again and again and everything I've read indicates they should only appear once. But they don't. They keep coming back like a psychotic stalker ex who wants alimony even though you were never married. How do I get this nagware to stop?!Why is my create file from OneDrive for Business node isn't working?
I have a power automate cloud flow that, in some point, gets a word .docx from my sharepoint site, then it creates the same document in onedrive so that I can convert it to PDF then returns it to sharepoint. This idea came from the necessity of converting a .docx to .pdf without the need of premium conectors. I have 2 scenarios: 1° Scenario: Flow: I get the data from the word that I need > I create the same file on OneDrive > I convert the file to .pdf > then I create the file on Sharepoint. Problem: When I run my flow, it gets a 404 error: "message": "File Not Found\r\nclientRequestId: y-f695-48b1-9556-xc\r\nserviceRequestId: x-e051-b000-efc3-y" Error image: 2° Scenario: Flow: The same as the above, the only thing I did after research, is that the node that I get content from file from my sharepoint site also returns the "$content-type", so I specified that for the create file from OneDrive I'll only want the "$content" attribute. In resume, it creates the file in onedrive but I can't open it, it appears to be corrupted, at first I thought my sharepoint file was also broken, but then I could open it with no errors as on OneDrive. Problem: When I run my flow, it gets the error that it can't convert that kind of file (as I wrote above, the file creates corrupted), the main problem is understanding why it gets corrupted, it even returs the content-type that I'm not passing anymore. Error image: Message: "message": "Error from microservice: {\"status\":406,\"message\":\"Não há suporte para a conversão desse arquivo para PDF. (cannotOpenFile / Error from Office Service. Url=https://wordcs.officeapps.live.com/document/export/pdf HttpCode=BadRequest)\",\"source\":\"api.connectorp.svc.ms\"}\r\nclientRequestId: y-13f3-4e1a-a77a-x\r\nserviceRequestId: y-a09f-b000-f272-x" NB: This flow actually worked for more than 1 year with no problems like that, the last time it ran without errors was last week (6-7 days from today).Creating a live document
Hi All, I wonder if anyone could help me please or guide me in the right direction. We are a small charity who provides free transport for Cancer clients in our area as our nearest hospital is over 60 miles away. Once a week we produce a 'Run Sheet' in Word, convert it to a PDF and email the link of the file to all our drivers for their duties the following week. The problem we have is the sheet is out of date the minute we send it out as clients call continually and new 'runs' are added. We prefer PDF as our drivers (some with limited tech skills) have PDF Readers by default on their smart phones. Whether it's word or PDF, how could we create a 'live' run sheet so that when the co-ordinators add or change the 'run sheet' within our OneDrive the drivers can see this. I know the basic level of this is to just create a Word document and create a share link and send that but I am sure there will be a better way of doing it so that we can point 'one' link and not have to share the a different file each week. Is there something within the Microsoft Family that would do the job better? We have a full non-profit licence. Sorry if that is confusing. Any ideas are most welcome. Thanks, Andrew
PAGE BREAK 365 WORD DOC doesn't work
Hello The page break on 365 word docs don't work properly. The create an enormous space between one page and the following, making it very difficult to work with for presentation, taking into account that the company only allows these type of docs to work with. In the attach image you can see how large these breaks are with the circles in red. I've tried all options in paragraph options but it doesn't word. I've tried help with the assistance of an AI but it has given up saying there might be some limitations to these type of pages. Anyone know what I can do to avoid these large page breaks in 364 Word docs? Thank you very much in advance Alberto
