How do I get into edit mode to update a record without having to go through the Related Actions link first?
This is beyond crazy that Appian forces someone to perform an extra mouse click when there should be an option to put the update and delete links directly on the summary page.
Why is this even a thing? There is no reason why your two most common dataset record actions require a completely separate page in order to access.
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You can display them as buttons on any of the Record views.
https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/23.2/record-actions.html#display-related-action-on-record-view
Alternatively, you can also just point to them with a Record Action Field from your Record List.
Here's the documentation on the record action field that Mathieu mentioned: https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/23.2/Record_Action_Component.html
You can call that from an interface to create various in-line editing experiences like the ones seen here: docs.appian.com/.../ux-record-actions.html