After announcing transcript requests about a month ago, we quickly realized that we needed the feature to do a better job handling requests from former students and others who don't have a Populi login. So, when the feature is released tonight (October 11), it will include a public-facing form that lets people submit official transcript requests.

Here's how it works:

1. In Transcript Requests > Settings, you enable the public transcript request form.
2. You can then link to it from your website or pass the URL along to your former students who need an official transcript.
3. The requester goes to the form and enters her last name, SSN or SIN , and date of birth. Populi uses this information to match the requester to one of your student records (we can't have Jane Smith ordering a transcript for the other Jane Smith, now can we?).
4. Once matched with a student record, the requester enters the request details (recipient, etc.) and pays for it by credit card (depending, of course, on your payment settings).
5. The request enters the queue in Academics > Transcript Requests, where you can review it and fulfill it.

To learn all there is to know about Transcript Requests, have a look at the Populi Knowledge Base!

Arrivederci, action gear

With this release we're also loading the Profile's gear onto the funeral pyre and putting a lit torch to it. In its stead: a new menu icon, together with context-specific actions links.

What this means:

• The action gear  is gone! Here's the new menu icon, located just above where the gear used to live: 
• The menu icon contains everything the gear used to give you on Profile > Info: Export ID Card, Reset Password, etc.
• The context-specific actions formerly contained in the gear have moved into the individual views in the Profile. So, you'll see Record Payment and Print Statement (etc.) in Profile > Financial > Dashboard. You'll see Export Schedule, etc. in Profile > Student. And so on.

We fully appreciate that everyone clicks the gear a zillion times a day, and us changing a much-used feature will initially be very annoying. We understand! That said, the new design makes the previously-hidden actions easier to find, and the menu icon now consistently shows you the same group of actions wherever you are on the profile. It's more consistent and makes more sense than the old layout, and it clears the way for us to make additional improvements on the Profile.

A few other behind-the-scenes improvements will go out with this release, which we'll describe in our Release Notes this Friday (have you subscribed to those yet?). Of course, if you have any comments or questions about the updates, we're eager to hear from you.