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Export to PDF from Microsoft Publisher

Posted on 03/05/2010 at 10:54 am by Kevin Wentworth
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I have a client that sends me newsletters in Microsoft Publisher format.  I wanted to output the newsletter as a PDF, but wanted to keep the text for SEO and so users can copy and paste the text if needed.  Microsoft Publisher doesn't have an export to PDF function, so usually I would just do a File > Print and select Adobe PDF as the printer.  However, this would just be an "image" of the document, not the actual document with selectable text.  This is how you can get a PDF with rendered text out of Microsoft Publisher...

Save the Publisher File as a PostScript (.ps) File

1. In Microsoft Publisher, choose File > Save As
2. In the dialogue window, under Save as Type, choose PostScript (*.ps)
3. Save the file to any location that you'll be able to find it

Convert the PostScript (.ps) File to a PDF

This is the easy part (at least if you have Adobe Acrobat Professional and Distiller, which I have).  Open up the PostScript with Acrobat Distiller.  It will automatically create a PDF file in the same directory (v6.0 does anyway).

Microsoft Publisher File Now Converted to PDF

That's it.  Now you have a Microsoft Publisher file saved as a PDF with selectable text.  That should allow the Search Engines to easily index the PDF as content.

Cheers,
-Kevin Wentworth