How to move your Publisher files to Canva

Step 1: turn the .pub file into a PDF

If you still have Publisher, use File, Save as, PDF. If not, drop the file (or a whole folder) on PubFileConverter and download the PDF. Keep the fonts in mind: Canva works best when the PDF's text is real text, which is what both routes give you.

Step 2: import the PDF into Canva

1. Sign in to Canva and upload the PDF (drag it onto the Canva home page, or use the import or upload option).
2. Open it as a design. Canva separates the page into text boxes, shapes and pictures where it can.
3. Check every page. Fix fonts that changed, re-join text boxes that were split, and replace any picture that came in blurry.

Canva's help center lists page and size limits for PDF imports. For long newsletters, import a few pages at a time.

What usually needs fixing

• Fonts: fonts that came with Microsoft Office may be swapped for similar ones in Canva.
• Text boxes: a paragraph may arrive as several boxes, one per line.
• WordArt and effects: shadows, glows and curved text may come in as pictures.

Moving a whole archive?

You probably don't need every old flyer in Canva. Convert the whole archive to PDF for safekeeping, then import only the designs you reuse, like the yearly fair poster or the newsletter template. Converting many files at once.