Microsoft Publisher Is Retiring. What Happens to Your Office Seating Charts?
Microsoft Publisher can continue to be used with its current functionality until October 1, 2026. After that date, Microsoft 365 subscribers will no longer have access to Publisher.
Microsoft specifically recommends converting existing .pub files to another format before retirement, including PDF for files that need to remain viewable.
For teams that use Publisher to maintain office seating charts, however, simply converting a file to PDF solves only part of the problem.
You preserve the floor plan, but you still have a static document.
If an employee moves desks, a new hire joins, a department changes floors, or your hybrid team begins sharing workstations, someone still needs to manually change the seating chart and distribute the latest version.
That is the workflow Floor Plan Mapper is designed to replace.
With Floor Plan Mapper, Your Office Map Can Help Employees:
Floor Plan Mapper starts with the office floor plan you already have.
Upload an existing PDF, CAD, JPG, PNG or other floor plan format and use it as the foundation of an interactive office map. Employees, desks, meeting rooms, printers and other resources can then be placed directly onto the plan.
Instead of opening a Publisher document and searching visually for someone’s name, an employee can search the interactive map.
Instead of editing text boxes every time someone changes desks, an administrator can move an employee to the correct location using the seating-plan interface.
Instead of maintaining separate employee information inside the seating chart, Floor Plan Mapper can populate or synchronize employee profile information from systems such as Office 365 and Windows Active Directory using supported integration options.
With Floor Plan Mapper, Your Office Map Can Help Employees:
See Floor Plan Mapper
In Action
Experience the power of Floor Plan Creator firsthand by creating a demo account. The Floor Plan Mapper Online trial account has all features enabled, including desk booking and area of interest mapping. Our staff experts will help and guide you every step of the way if required.
Microsoft Publisher vs. Floor Plan Mapper for Office Seating Charts
Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application designed for creating visually formatted publications. It was not built specifically to manage changing employee locations, desk reservations, workplace directories or interactive office maps.
Floor Plan Mapper is built around the floor plan itself.
| Capability | Microsoft Publisher | Floor Plan Mapper |
|---|---|---|
| Display an office layout | Yes | Yes |
| Employee seating plans | Manual layout | Interactive seating plan |
| Find employees from a search box | Not its primary purpose | Yes |
| Move employee locations | Manual document editing | Drag-and-drop |
| Search desks, rooms and resources | Not its primary purpose | Yes |
| Desk booking / hot desking | no | Yes |
| See available desks on the map | no | Yes |
| Office 365 / employee data integration | Not a seating-management feature | Yes |
| Windows Active Directory integration | Not a seating-management feature | Yes |
| Multiple buildings and floors | Separate document workflow | Managed within the mapping platform |
| Cloud option | N/A as a seating platform | Yes |
| On-premise option | N/A as a seating platform | Yes |
Floor Plan Mapper supports both hosted cloud use and an on-premise installation.
Should You Replace Publisher With PowerPoint, Visio or Floor Plan Mapper?
For a small office with fixed seating and infrequent changes, that may be enough.
But the result is still primarily a document. Employee locations, desk changes and new seating assignments still need to be maintained manually.
Good fit for:
Simple visual layouts that do not change often.
For organizations primarily concerned with drawing and designing floor plans, Visio may make sense.
But creating the drawing and managing the people who use the space are different jobs.
Good fit for:
Creating and editing detailed diagrams and office layouts.
Employees and workplace teams can use the same interactive map to find people, locate desks and rooms, manage seating, book shared workspaces and access workplace information.
You keep the visual value of the floor plan while adding search, live employee locations, integrations and desk booking.
Good fit for:
Organizations that need the floor plan to work as a live workplace tool.
How to Move a Microsoft Publisher Seating Chart to Floor Plan Mapper
Step 1: Save Your Publisher Floor Plan Before Publisher Is Retired
Microsoft recommends converting important Publisher files before October 1, 2026.
For an office seating chart, PDF provides a practical migration format because it preserves the visual floor plan and is supported by Floor Plan Mapper.
Step 2: Upload Your Existing Floor Plan
Upload the exported floor plan to Floor Plan Mapper.
Floor Plan Mapper supports floor plans in formats including PDF, CAD, PNG and JPG.
Important: Do not assume that the original .pub file should be uploaded directly. Exporting the Publisher layout to a supported floor-plan format such as PDF provides a clearer migration path.
Step 3: Import Your Employee Information
Employee data can be added using a spreadsheet or connected through supported directory and integration options.
Floor Plan Mapper supports employee-data workflows involving Office 365, Windows Active Directory, SCIM and API integrations.
Step 4: Place Employees, Desks and Resources
Use the visual interface to assign employees and workplace resources to their actual locations.
You can map: Employees, Desks, Meeting rooms, Printers, Departments, Shared spaces, Equipment, Custom areas of interest, Other workplace assets
Step 5: Share the Interactive Office Map
Once configured, the office floor plan can be shared with employees or embedded into an intranet such as SharePoint.
Now the floor plan is not just something an administrator edits.
It becomes a workplace directory employees can search and use.
Control
Manage Employee Moves Without Rebuilding the Seating Chart
One of the biggest limitations of a static seating chart appears when the office changes.
Someone moves from Desk 214 to Desk 317. A department changes floors.
Ten new employees joined.
A workspace becomes shared.
A renovation changes part of the floor.
In a static document, every change becomes another editing task.
Floor Plan Mapper allows administrators to move employee locations using a drag-and-drop seating interface, while updated information becomes available through the interactive map.
This is particularly useful for organizations where seating changes frequently or where several people are responsible for workplace management.
Turn Your Publisher Seating Chart Into a Searchable Employee Directory
Floor Plan Mapper connects employee profile information to a physical position on the office map. Search for a coworker and the map can show the relevant building, floor and seating location.
This is particularly useful when an organization has:
Large Offices
Several Floors
New Employees
Microsoft 365 and Active Directory Integration
Floor Plan Mapper can populate or synchronize employee information through supported workplace systems including:
Microsoft 365 / Office 365
Windows Active Directory
Microsoft Entra ID
Seamlessly integrate all of your favorite tools
OKTA
Google Calendar
Windows AD
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Sharepoint
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Teams
OKTA
Google Calendar
Windows AD
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Sharepoint
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Teams
OKTA
Google Calendar
Windows AD
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Sharepoint
Why Companies Choose Floor Plan Mapper
Floor Plan Mapper has more than 15 years of experience in workplace mapping and is built around a simple idea: make the actual floor plan useful.
15+ Years
Industry Experience in Workplace Mapping
268,166+
Desks & Spaces Mapped
99.9%
Uptime & Reliability
741+
Companies Worldwide Using Floor Plan Mapper
1 Day
Average Implementation Time
$20,000+
Saved Per Year vs. OfficeSpace Software
Floor Plan Mapper also combines office seating plans with Microsoft integrations, employee search, interactive maps and desk booking.
Built by GIS professionals, the platform applies mapping technology to workplace management so users can understand who is where, what is available, and where workplace resources are located.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you only need to recreate a static visual seating chart, PowerPoint or Visio may be enough. If you need employee search, desk assignments, interactive floor plans, desk booking or employee-data integration, dedicated office seating software such as Floor Plan Mapper is designed for those tasks.
Microsoft says Publisher will reach end of life in October 2026. Microsoft 365 subscribers can continue using Publisher until October 1, 2026; after that, they will no longer have access to Publisher. Microsoft recommends converting important Publisher files before that date.
Yes. Microsoft provides a process for saving Publisher files as PDFs and specifically recommends PDF as an option for files that need to remain viewable after Publisher retirement.
Yes. Floor Plan Mapper supports existing floor plans in formats including PDF, CAD, PNG and JPG. The floor plan can then be configured with employees, desks, rooms and other workplace resources.
The safer workflow is to export the Publisher seating chart to a supported floor-plan format such as PDF before importing it. Floor Plan Mapper publicly documents support for PDF, CAD, PNG, JPG and other floor-plan image formats rather than direct .pub editing.
Visio is a strong option for creating and editing floor-plan drawings. Microsoft provides dedicated office-layout templates, scaled drawings and floor-plan shapes. If you also need searchable employees, desk booking, seating management and workplace-directory functionality, a dedicated office mapping platform serves a different purpose.
Yes. Floor Plan Mapper allows users to search employee information and locate the person’s building, floor and seating position on the interactive map.
Yes. Floor Plan Mapper supports Office 365 and Microsoft-related integrations, along with Windows Active Directory, SCIM, API, SAML and other integration options.
Yes. Floor Plan Mapper can organize floor plans across buildings and floors and is designed to scale beyond a single office seating chart.
Yes. Floor Plan Mapper offers both cloud and on-premise deployment options. Its published on-premise pricing is based on the number of floor plans.
