Open a PUB File on a Chromebook
Chromebooks are everywhere in schools and churches — and Microsoft Publisher has never run on any of them. There is no ChromeOS version, no Android version, and no way to install the Windows program on a managed school device. So when a newsletter, worksheet or bulletin arrives as a .pub file, a Chromebook simply shrugs: Google Docs won't read it, and neither will the built-in file viewer.
Here's the way around it: open the file in the browser instead. Drop your .pub below — we render every page the way Publisher would, right on this page, in about ten seconds. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, which also means it works on locked-down school Chromebooks. One more click saves the document as a PDF that opens in Google Drive, Classroom, or anywhere else — permanently.
PUB files on ChromeOS — common questions
Can I install Microsoft Publisher on a Chromebook?
No. Publisher is a Windows-only desktop program — it was never released for ChromeOS (or Mac), and there's no Android or web version. A browser tool like this page is the only route, and it happens to be the fastest one anyway.
A teacher sent a .pub worksheet and the school Chromebook can't open it. What now?
Drop it above. You'll see every page in seconds and can download a PDF that opens on any school device. Because nothing gets installed, it works on managed Chromebooks where the app store is blocked by the administrator.
Can Google Docs open a .pub file?
No — Docs, Slides and the Drive preview don't read Publisher's format. Convert the file to PDF here first; the PDF then behaves perfectly in Drive and Google Classroom. More options on the what opens PUB files page.
Will it look the way the author designed it?
In almost all cases, yes — our renderer lays pages out the way Publisher does. If a file uses one of the rare features we can't fully reproduce, a warning appears above the preview so you know before you print or share it.