# Need Help Opening PUB Files

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-opening-pub-files/226370>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 28, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-opening-pub-files/226370 "2004-01-28T03:10:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lady\_Kate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aca169/32.png) [@Lady\_Kate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Kate)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-opening-pub-files/226370/1 "2004-01-28T03:10:00Z")

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I have a cd with some marketing materials I just purchased and received in the mail. Some of the files are PUB files, and I can’t open them. What do I need to install to open these files? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-opening-pub-files/226370/2 "2004-01-28T03:34:07Z")

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According to [FILExt.com](http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=pub)those are most likely Microsoft Publisher files. I’m not aware of any freeware viewer fior these, but if you know anyone with Publisher installed, perhaps they can open open them for you and export them to RTF, which WordPad and other word processing packages can open.

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**Author:** ![Lady\_Kate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aca169/32.png) [@Lady\_Kate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Kate)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-opening-pub-files/226370/3 "2004-01-28T03:59:18Z")

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Well, that certainly makes sense. Thank you.

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-opening-pub-files/226370/4 "2004-01-28T11:58:31Z")

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Converting from Publisher format to RTF or similar is likely to throw up all sorts of problems. Better to export them to PDF - there’s a free PDF printer here: [http://www.acrosoftware.com/products/cutepdf/Printer.asp](http://www.acrosoftware.com/products/cutepdf/Printer.asp)