Is there a software work-around to MS publisher?

[Skippy]

Okay, here is the problem. My child is using a version of MS publisher at school that does not work with my 2003 version of office. I went out and bought her a new version of Microsoft Office Home and Student but did not realize that publisher is not part of that software.

 

Without me buying a entire new version of office, is there any workaround that anyone knows of that will make her be able to work on these school projects at home?

 

Thanks in advance.

[keggerz]

Okay, here is the problem. My child is using a version of MS publisher at school that does not work with my 2003 version of office. I went out and bought her a new version of Microsoft Office Home and Student but did not realize that publisher is not part of that software.

 

Without me buying a entire new version of office, is there any workaround that anyone knows of that will make her be able to work on these school projects at home?

 

Thanks in advance.

havent used publisher but in Office 2007 there is an option to save documents to be compatible with previous versions...ie: in word if you save it as a 2007 document it gets saved as a .docx if you have an older version of word it wont open it since it only opens .doc files....you can check MS for a compatability patch or something like that or have her try and save it in the old format if that is available(oh and doing that can remove some functionality depending on what is being used)

[Skippy]

(oh and doing that can remove some functionality depending on what is being used)

I that is where the problem is. The stuff that she is trying to do is not available in my 2003 version. I will still search MS but I am hoping someone just knows what I can do.

[Caveman_Nick]

you could try http://www.scribus.net/

 

EDIT: Nevermind....free alternative, but does not directly read the file format.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Caveman_Nick

[Caveman_Nick]

My short stint of research suggests that in order to get Microsoft Publisher compatibility you need Microsoft Publisher. Time to buy that upgrade.

[cdrudge]

While it won't work for the long term, there is a free 60-day trial available from Microsoft.

 

If your daughter is in college, she might want to check to see if she can obtain Microsoft products free or dirt cheap. I know when I was in school we could get Office professional for $5/disc (2 CDs at the time).

[Big John]

If your daughter is in college, she might want to check to see if she can obtain Microsoft products free or dirt cheap. I know when I was in school we could get Office professional for $5/disc (2 CDs at the time).

She is in 7th grade.

[Big Country]

$100 for the upgrade to Publisher 2007 from the microsoft site

[rocknrobn26]

I couldn't find any shareware/open source options. All seem proprietary. Understand about saving in 2003 format and losing features. Don't waste too much time looking for a patch. Having worked w/ AutoCad for many years, when they came up w/ a new feature, it was NEVER downward compatible and they never patched it. That's how they could squeeze your titty to buy the new version. But have you tried it to see what the damage is when you save backward? It may be repairable or there may be a workaround. In many cases the "new" feature was possible in earlier versions and the only improvement was a macro to make it easier. And then again it could be a new format of code that just mucks it all up. Still it's worth a try.

Looks like the Upgrade price is $99. The trial, as Cdrudge sugg'd could work, but if I read the terms correctly the 60 days is not quite true, as they state in the agreement that it's 25 uses or 60 days.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

[Skippy]

We are going to try the backward save tomorrow. I told her to save a 2nd copy in the backward format then we will work with it a little at home and see what changes.

 

Thanks to all that have tried to help us.