Is there a macro for converting a batch of publisher files to word?

To convert a Microsoft Publisher file to Word using a macro, run the code from within Publisher because Word does not natively support opening or parsing .pub files. The following VBA code utilizes the SaveAs method with the pbFileWord format constant to export the active publication.

Sub SavePublisherAsWord()
    Dim currentPath As String
    Dim newPath As String
    If Len(ThisDocument.Path) = 0 Then
        MsgBox "Please save your Publisher file first."
        Exit Sub
    End If
    currentPath = ThisDocument.FullName
    newPath = Left(currentPath, InStrRev(currentPath, ".")) & "docx"
    ThisDocument.SaveAs Filename:=newPath, Format:=pbFileWord
    MsgBox "Exported to: " & newPath
End Sub

When you execute this macro, Publisher attempts to flow the text from your various text boxes into a single Word document. It is important to understand that Publisher is a desktop publishing tool while Word is a word processor, so absolute positioning of images and overlapping elements may not translate perfectly. If the layout is complex, the resulting Word document will likely require manual adjustment to reposition graphics and fix text wrapping.

If your goal is to preserve the visual design exactly as it appears in Publisher, a better programmatic approach involves exporting the document to a PDF format and then using Word's built-in PDF Reflow feature to open that file. This generally handles columns and anchored images more gracefully than a direct text-to-word export.

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hth

Marcin