Save a publication as a Word document

You can bring information from Publisher into a Word document. For example, if your publication contains a large amount of text that you want to re-use, you can save the text from your publication as a Word document. Or, if you designed a page in Publisher that you want to use as a book cover in your Word document, you can paste the page into the Word document and then print the document from Word.

Note: Although you can export part or all of your publication to Word, you cannot save your entire publication — all text, graphics, and layout — in a Word document in one step.

In this article

Ways to export your publication to Word

Save the text in your publication as a Word document

Copy and paste a page or objects on a page

Save a page, two facing pages, or objects on a page as a picture file

Ways to export your publication to Word

You can use any of the following methods to export part or all of your publication to Word:

• Save the text in your publication as a Word document     Use this method for a newsletter or a publication that contains a large amount of text that you want to use in Word. Save your publication in the file format for your current version of Word to open the saved file in Word. Save in the Word 97-2003 file format to open the saved file in earlier versions of Word.

• Copy and paste a page or objects on a page     Use this method for a brochure, letterhead page, or publication that you want to bring into Word and make changes to. Copy an object, a selection of objects, or a page in your publication and paste it into a Word document in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format.

• Save a page, two facing pages, or objects on a page as a picture file     Use this method to create a picture file that you can insert into a Word document. Possible uses include a calendar, a book cover, or a publication that includes a table or that you don't need to make changes to in Word.

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Save the text in your publication as a Word document

If you save your publication as a Word document, the built-in converter displays a message telling you that the selected file type supports only text. The text and font formatting (font, size, style, underline, color, and effects) are preserved. However, design elements such as graphics and columns are not preserved.

Tips for best results when you save the text in a publication as a Word document

• Make sure that text box boundaries in your publication don't overlap.

• Headers and footers and page numbers are preserved when you save your publication, but the header and footer functionality is not. If you want to change the headers or footers, save the document, and then add headers and footers to the Word document.

• Page breaks in the publication are ignored. You can insert page breaks in the Word document after you save it.

• Graphics in the publication are not preserved. If you want to add graphics from the publication, you can copy the graphics and paste them into the Word document separately.

Save your publication as a Word document

1. Open the Publisher publication that you want to save as a Word document.

2. Click File > Save As, and browse to the location where you want to save the Word document.

3. In the File name box, type a name for the Word document.

4. In the Save as type list, select the version of Word you want save for. Older versions of Word will include the version number; for Word 2016, select Word Document for the current version of Word.

5. Click Save.

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Copy and paste a page or objects on a page

You can copy a single object, a selection of objects, or all of the objects on a page in your publication and paste them into a Word document in HTML format. When you paste in HTML format, the formatting and text styles are preserved, and you can make changes to any objects or text that you paste into the Word document.

Tips for best results when you paste objects into a Word document in HTML format

• If you copy a publication page that contains text that flows to a text box on another page, none of the text is pasted into the Word document. For best results, copy only pages with text that does not flow to another page.

• If you copy an entire page from your publication, you may need to change the margins and page orientation in the Word document. You can do this either before or after you paste the page into the Word document.

• If your publication contains a table, such as a calendar, save the objects in your publication as a picture file to preserve the layout of your table on the page.

  Note: This method preserves the layout, but you will not be able to make changes to the table in the Word document.

• If you want to copy several objects, you may find it easiest to group these objects first before you copy them.

  1. Click and drag a selection box around the objects that you want in the group.

  2. On the Drawing Tools Format or the Picture Tools Format tab, click Group.

     (In Publisher 2007, in the lower-right corner of the selection box, click Group Objects .)

• If your publication has multiple pages, you can copy an entire page, but not the entire publication at one time. If you are viewing a two-page spread in a multiple-page publication (on the View menu, click Two-Page Spread), you can copy two facing pages at a time.

• Text that is displayed vertically (top to bottom, or bottom to top) in your publication will be displayed with horizontal orientation in the Word document. You can change the text orientation in the Word document after you paste.

  1. In Word, click the text box that contains the text that you want to change.

  2. Under Text Box Tools, on the Format tab, in the Text group, click Text Direction repeatedly until you get the orientation that you want.

Copy a page or objects into Word

1. Select the Publisher objects that you want to copy.

   Note: To select the entire page, click a blank area on the publication, or click the scratch area, and then click Ctrl+A.

2. Right-click, and then click Copy.

3. Open the Word document.

4. On the page where you want to paste the objects, right-click, and then click Paste.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 until you have pasted all of the objects or pages that you want.

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Save a page, two facing pages, or objects on a page as a picture file

You can save a single object, a selection of objects, an entire page, or a two-page spread in your publication as a picture file and then insert that picture into a Word document.

Note: You can't make changes to the publication text or objects that you insert in the Word document when you use this method.

Tips for best results when you paste objects or pages as picture files

• If you save an entire page or a two-page spread from your publication, you may need to change the margins and page orientation in the Word document. You can do this either before or after you insert the picture file into the Word document.

• If your publication has multiple pages, you can save an entire page, but not the entire publication at one time. If you are viewing a two-page spread in a multiple-page publication (on the View menu, click Two-Page Spread), you can save two facing pages at a time.

• For the best results with viewing and printing objects or a page from your publication in Word, save the objects by selecting PNG Portable Network Graphics Format, JPEG File Interchange Format, or Enhanced Metafile format at the highest resolution, and selecting High quality printing or commercial press (300 dpi), and then paste the objects or the page into your Word document.

Notes: 

• Some PNG or JPEG pictures may already be compressed, so their resolution may be less than 600 dots per inch (dpi).

• Enhanced metafiles can be saved only at 96 dpi.

Insert a page, two facing pages, or objects from your publication into Word as a picture

1. Select the items that you want to save by doing one of the following:

   • Click File > Save As to save the entire page or two facing pages as a picture.

   • Right-click the picture, WordArt, shape, or group of objects that you want to save, and then click Save as Picture on the shortcut menu.

2. In the Save as type list, select a picture format, such as PNG Portable Network Graphics Format or JPEG File Interchange Format.

3. If the picture format supports multiple resolutions (the Change button is available in the Save As dialog box), click Change, select the resolution option that you want, and then click OK.

   Note: For best results, select High quality printing or commercial press (300 dpi).

4. Click Save.

5. Open the Word document, and then click where you want to insert the picture.

6. Click Insert > Picture.

7. In the Insert Picture dialog box, browse to where you saved the file, click the file, and then click Insert.

8. Repeat steps 1 through 7 until you have inserted all of the objects or pages that you want.

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