Printing Transcripts in Banner

There are three places to enter a printer when printing transcripts in Banner, and while it can be confusing, there is a reason behind it. This document will attempt to clarify some of the confusion.

The three places to enter a printer are:

1. The "Transcripts" field in the form SOADEST

2. The Printer definition block in GJAPCTL when running SHRTRTC

3. Parameter 04 in SHRTRTC.

To understand how printing transcripts works, it's easier to picture 1 and 3 above as more of a "print queue" than as where you actually want to print. Regardless of anything else that you do, number 2 above is where the transctipt(s) will print (if anything prints at all).

Starting with SOADEST: When you first go to SHARQTC, you will be redirected to SOADEST. If you normally only print transcripts to one printer, then just enter the printer you use here. It's important to remember that, as noted above, this is only a "queue" and is directly tied to parameter 04 in SHRTRTC.

If you request a transcript and have selected rec1 in SOADEST, that request is now sitting in the rec1 queue. To print this transcript, parameter 04 in SHRTRTC *must* match what you entered in SOADEST.

Regardless of what's in 1 and 3 above, as long as they match, what you select in the printer definition block in GJAPCTL is where you will get the actual hardcopy.

NOTE THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN BANNER TYING A TRANSCRIPT REQUEST TO A USER! In other words, you cannot print just "your" transcripts. What you are doing when you run SHRTRTC is emptying out the queue defined in 1 and 3 above. So (and this is the most important statement in this document) you should NEVER enter a "%" in parameter 04 unless you want all transcripts that have been requested but have not yet printed, regardless of who requested them or where they were intended to go!

A few examples might help clarify:

• Example 1

  1. enter "rec1" in SOADEST, then request a transcript.

  2. enter "rec1" in the printer definition block in GJAPCTL when running SHRTRTC

  3. enter "rec1" in Parameter 04 in SHRTRTC.

     • Your transcript, and any others that have been queued to rec1 will print on rec1.

• Example 2

  1. enter "rec1" in SOADEST, then request a transcript.

  2. enter "rec3" in the printer definition block in GJAPCTL when running SHRTRTC

  3. enter "rec1" in Parameter 04 in SHRTRTC.

     • Your transcript, and any others that have been queued to rec1 will print on rec3.

• Example 3

  1. enter "%" in Parameter 04 in SHRTRTC.

     • EVERY TRANSCRIPT, QUEUED BY ANYONE, ANYWHERE, AND NOT YET PRINTED, WILL PRINT TO THE PRINTER YOU ENTERED IN THE PRINTER DEFINITION BLOCK IN GJAPCTL!

So if someone in another building requests thirty transcripts through SHARQTC or via a batch process but hasn't printed them yet, if anyone runs SHRTRTC and uses a % in parameter 04, all of the first users transcripts will print to the second users printer.

Another example:

Say you want to print a transcript to rec1, and then a few minutes later, while you're still in Banner, want to print a transcript on rec3. How do you do this? When you get the request for the first transcript, enter rec1 on SOADEST, run SHRTRTC using rec1 in both 2 and 3 above. When you want to print the second transcript, manually go back to SOADEST and enter rec3, go to SHARQTC and request your transcript, then run SHRTRTC with rec3 in 2 and 3 above.

Transcript Problem Log Sheet

If you are having problems printing transcripts, please keep a log of all transcripts printed so that we can track down the problem. Also, while we are debugging, please set parameter number 10, "Control Report," to "Y" for unofficial transcripts. 

Computing Services has a Transcript Problem Log Sheet as an Excel spreadsheet. If you'd like to receive the spreadsheet as an attachment, ask Computing Services to send the following document from their shared drive:

• S:\CS\Banner_documents\transcript_problem_log_sheet.xls

No transcripts are printing for one student
The reason no transcripts for a single student could be that no academic records exist for that student.