Microsoft recently announced that by October 2026, Publisher will no longer be supported. If you have a hard copy, you can continue using it without support, if not, too bad.
I'm in the too bad boat.
Everything I've produced and worked on over the last decade or two, adventures, rules, character sheets, etc., was done with Publisher. I have projects that will never be finished now for sure, because with converting and reformatting, you're pretty much starting from scratch. Yet being realistic, my many little projects mostly served as distractions and were destined to stay that way.
So for now, I have archived some things in PDF form, if only for my own reference and have settled on using Word from here on out after researching and tinkering with a few of the other programs. My initial impression of Word was likening it to B/X whereas Publisher is AD&D. Adobe InDesign is another option but costs twice as much as Publisher did.
Blessing in disguise...
I've been diligently working on a new module that I fully intend to publish in 2026. I'm embracing a simpler, A5 format for this one and I'm becoming increasingly comfortable using Word. The original idea for this sprung a few years ago, but for some reason -- perhaps no more distractions -- I'm off to the races and this one's awesome. I'm basing it on 1st edition/OSRIC rules.
Until the New Year.
My sympathy, for sure. I've been shifting my design stack around this year more than ever.
ReplyDeleteWord and formatting have been nails on a chalkboard for me, but if you are ever looking for an alternative, I recommend Affinity, if you haven't already. I started using it as my go to for layout about four years ago, though I haven't published any RPG related works as yet (planning on it!]. Its now completely free with no signs of going anywhere soon. That would be my recommendation. And cheers on the A5 choice. I wish more games were offered in that size.
Thanks Ryan. Affinity is one I've looked at and seems to have some nice qualities, but unless I'm mistaken, you have to type your text elsewhere (???). I like to type right there on the document and see it evolve visually as I create without much effort. The thought of typing text elsewhere and then importing it makes me cringe. Could be wrong on that. I'll look into again I'm sure.
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