Release history

Name	Version Number[6]	Release Date[7]	Edition of Microsoft Office included in
	1.0	1991
	2.0	1993
Publisher for Windows 95	3.0	Sept. 15, 1995
Microsoft Publisher 97	8.0	Dec. 8, 1996	Small Business Edition
Microsoft Publisher 98	8.5	June 21, 1998	Small Business Edition 2.0
Microsoft Publisher 2000	9.0	Sept. 7, 1999	Small Business Edition, Professional, Premium, Developer
Microsoft Publisher 2002	10.0	May 31, 2001	Professional OEM, Professional Special Edition
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003	11.0	Nov. 24, 2003	Small Business, Professional, Professional Plus, Enterprise
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007	12.0	Jan. 27, 2007	Small Business, Professional, Ultimate, Professional Plus, Enterprise
Microsoft Publisher 2010	14.0	June 15, 2010	Standard, Professional, Professional Plus, Office 365
Microsoft Publisher 2013	15.0	Jan. 29, 2013	Professional, Professional Plus, Office 365

Overview

Publisher is included in higher-end editions of Microsoft Office, reflecting Microsoft's emphasis on the application as an easy-to-use and less expensive alternative to the "heavyweights" with a focus on the small business market where firms do not have dedicated design professionals available to make marketing materials and other documents.^[1][2] However, it has a relatively small share of the desktop publishing market, which is dominated by Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress.^[1] Publisher has historically been less well liked among high-end commercial print shops, compared with other desktop publishing applications.^[3]
In Microsoft Office 2007, while most of Microsoft Office apps adopted ribbons in their user interface, Publisher retained its toolbars and did not adopt ribbons until the next version, 2010.

Problems

Publisher's position as an entry-level application aggravates many issues (particularly in older versions) such as fonts unavailable and embedded objects not available on service internal machines^{[clarification needed]}. Instead, Publisher comes with tools to pack related files into a self-expanding application.

Compatibility

Publisher's proprietary file format (.pub) is supported in LibreOffice since February 2013.^[4] Corel Draw X4 features "read only" support. Adobe's PageMaker software saves files with a .pub extension but the two files are incompatible and unrelated. Publisher supports numerous other file formats, including the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format which is supported on Windows platforms. The Microsoft Publisher trial version can be used to view .pub files beyond the trial period.[5