Custom Transcripts

Populi gives you two options when exporting a student's transcript:

• An unofficial transcript, which just recounts the student's academic record.
• An official transcript, which usually requires a signature from the registrar and has been requested by another school.

Either type of transcript can be exported using the built-in transcript template. You can also use a custom transcript template for official transcripts (and, if enabled in Academics > Settings, you can use it for unofficial transcripts, too).

Custom transcripts export as either PDFs or .odt files, which are word processing files in the Open Office format. The .odt format works in several programs, including MS Office; you can also download the free Open Office suite, the .odt format's native home. There are many reasons why you might want a custom transcript—you might need it to print properly on your official transcript paper, you might want additional information on it, you might want the logo on the right instead of the left. Whatever the case, the custom transcript can probably take care of your needs.

The process

If you'd like a custom transcript for your school...

1. Contact Populi customer support and let us know you'd like a custom transcript layout.
2. In your request, describe what you would like to see in your custom transcript—custom student or person fields, wider margins, different font, whatever. If you have a transcript you would like us to copy, submit that in the initial request. You should also specify whether you'd like a layout for unofficial transcripts.
3. One of us will work with our basic transcript template to conform to your specifications. Why us and not you? Two reasons: A) the transcript template is full of variables, which are codes that enable Populi to write certain information to the .odt; it is easy to mess these up. B) Working with this code in Open Office is about as fun as getting whipped in the eyes with a hickory switch. It's as enjoyable as an unanesthetized root canal. It's as pleasant as strapping a live horseshoe crab to your face. It's a matter of self-preservation on our part: we handle these requests to spare you this singular grief and keep you from cursing Populi!
4. We'll upload the custom transcript to Communications > Print Layouts.
   • As Bruce Springsteen once bellowed, you can look, but you better not touch. Please don't edit the transcript layout on your own—these things are too easy to mess up. If you need changes made, just let us know!
5. Once it's uploaded, we'll inform you and ask you to print a transcript. After looking over the transcript, get back to us with comments and revisions—"make that margin wider", "we have a different fax number", etc.—using the support request you opened when you first asked for the custom transcript.
6. We'll repeat this process until you're happy with it.

Using the custom transcript

Once the above process is completed...

• The custom transcript will be your default option when you export an official transcript from the student's Profile > Student > Transcript view.
• If you have a custom layout for unofficial transcripts, that's what will be used when either you or a student exports an unofficial transcript. School staff will have the option to export this in either .odt or PDF format; students will only have the PDF option.