Office 365 for IT Pros (2020 Edition) is Coming

New Edition of Office 365 for IT Pros in July

Office 365 for IT Pros Sixth (2020) Edition is coming

We issue a new edition of the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook annually. Each new edition gives us the chance to evaluate the book and what whatever changes are appropriate to match the development of Office 365 (and to some degree, Microsoft 365). We might combine chapters, add new chapters, or move content to the companion volume. It’s all part of evolving a living book.

Right now, we’re working on the 2020 edition. If all goes well, authors get their text updated in time and the technical edit process goes smoothly, we should be able to launch the 2020 edition on July 1. At that point, we will retire the 2019 edition. The 2019 edition will receive one more round of updates, probably around June 15.

Author Changes

The 2020 edition is strengthened by the addition of Brian Desmond to the writing team. Brian is a very experienced MVP and the author of the very popular book “Active Directory: Designing, Deploying, and Running Active Directory” (O’Reilly). Brian is now responsible for our coverage of identities and authentication (Chapter 3) and is busy revising and expanding that content. Jussi Roine steps down from the writing team in this edition and the chapter he wrote (Flow) is now maintained by Gustavo Velez.

Why Buy Office 365 for IT Pros Now?

Potential buyers might ask if they should wait until July 1 to subscribe to the 2020 edition. We think that Office 365 for IT Pros delivers the best available coverage of Office 365, even if it was never updated. Under the print publishing model (or indeed, for most other eBooks), you never receive any updates. What you buy is what you read.

Our aim for Office 365 for IT Pros is to update content continuously to match the changes that occur inside the service. A glance at our change log tells you how many changes happen in a year. We think we do a good job of documenting the changes Microsoft make and integrating new and updated material into our monthly updates.

Quadrotech Sponsors Upgrade Fees

However, we also know that people don’t like signing up for something when a new version is on the way. To make things easier, Quadrotech, the main sponsor for Office 365 for IT Pros, has agreed to pay the upgrade fee for everyone who buys a full-price copy of the 2019 edition since May 1, 2019. We will send these subscribers a code for a free upgrade to the 2020 edition when the new edition is available. Other subscribers will receive the opportunity to upgrade to the 2020 edition for $14.95, just like we’ve done for previous updates.

Regretfully, we cannot offer upgrades to people who buy the Kindle version from Amazon. There is no facility to do this for Kindle books and Amazon doesn’t tell us anything about the people who buy the Kindle version. This is one of the reasons why we recommend that people buy the EPUB/PDF version and convert the EPUB version to MOBI if they want to read the book on a Kindle.

We thank our subscribers for the ongoing support you give to this project. Without your help, we could not afford to spend the time we do to track what happens inside Office 365 and documenting what we discover in our own unique style.

8 Replies to “Office 365 for IT Pros (2020 Edition) is Coming”

    1. We’d like as many people working with Office 365 (as an administrator) to be a subscriber, but we know that the fact that a new version is coming creates some challenges in peoples’ minds in the last couple of months before we release the new version. Often, this stops them becoming a subscriber, so they lose the value of what’s in the book. For the last couple of editions, we gave free upgrades to people who bought books in the last two weeks before the new edition appeared, but only if they asked. This time around, we have some sponsorship to cover the upgrade fees, so we can offer anyone who buys a full-price ($49.95) book in May or June a free upgrade. Obviously we can’t offer a free upgrade to everyone as this would be too expensive and remove a big source of our funding – and without the funding, we can’t do the work on the book.

      But let me be clear on one point. We believe that any version of Office 365 for IT Pros (2019 edition) is better than any other Office 365 book available on the market. We’ve looked at many and we know where we’re good and need to improve, but overall we consider Office 365 for IT Pros to be the best available. In fact, it’s a dollar-a-week bargain for the annual subscription, if you renew in July.

      1. Hi

        This may have been answered already elsewhere – apologies if this is the case.

        If I buy the 2019 version and get the 2020 version free upgrade – is that for all updates from July 2019 to June 2020.
        Will the “2021” version then cost $19.95 (or whatever cost is then) to upgrade to that?

        Regards

        Richard

      2. Yes, if you buy the 2019 edition now, you will get the 2020 edition after we release it, and you will receive all the updates released for the 2020 edition in the year to July 2020. At that point you can elect to continue with your subscription for 2021 by paying an upgrade fee.

  1. Tony,
    I purchase the 2019 edition but never got the download link from gumroad.com. Can you help with a email contact for assistance?

    Thanks,
    Tim Connolly

    1. Sure. Send email to O365ITProsRenewals AT office365itpros.com and we will fix you up.

  2. I bought the 2018 book, is there an upgrade price available?
    And is it possible to add a VAT number in my account for an international business order?

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