Several commenters here and at Amazon.com have made it very clear that they were not happy about a recent change in the format of the Inside Out books.
Over the years, every Inside Out book that has had my name on it has included a CD that contains a full copy of the book in PDF format, which you can copy, search, and read to your heart’s content.
For our new title in the series, Office 2010 Inside Out, that policy changed, and instead of a CD with a PDF file the book included a voucher good for access to the book via the Safari Online service.
Many of you made it very clear in comments and via e-mail that you didn’t like that change. We didn’t like the new arrangement either. We communicated that feedback to Microsoft Press, and they listened. This post from Microsoft Press’s Editorial Director, Kimberly Kim, was published earlier today:
Microsoft Press knows that the inclusion of a fully searchable ebook version of your Step by Step or Inside Out title is an important part of the book’s value to you. Thanks to your recent feedback through our book survey and reviews on Amazon.com, we now know that providing you unlimited online access to your ebook is simply not enough. You want to download your ebook so that you can read it even when you’re not connected to the Internet.
Today, I am pleased to inform you that Safari has enabled a download option for Step by Step and Inside Out titles, allowing you to choose the method that works best for you. The instructions for downloading your ebook are listed below.
I can’t stress enough how valuable your feedback is to us. Using the information from your survey responses, we can spot customer satisfaction trends within weeks of publication. This helps us put our time and effort into the activities that matter most to you. Please keep the feedback coming via our survey!
Having a fully searchable copy of the book in PDF format has always been one of the great strengths of this series, in my opinion. I rarely open the print edition here, preferring to be able to search the PDF edition, which is just a click or two away.
If you own Office 2010 Inside Out, you should go read the rest of Kim’s post to get the full instructions. And you should know that our next book, Windows 7 Inside Out Deluxe Edition, will include a CD with a full copy of the book and more.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
Kudos to Microsoft Press for listening to their customers and doing the right thing! Wish there were more stories like this every day. 🙂
What will stop you from getting the voucher from the book without paying for it? Download it for free.