The three-month Permanent Fund dividend application period opens today with some new twists on applying for the annual payment the state has made to Alaskans since 1982.

First things first: If you apply online -- as 76 percent of applicants did for last year's $1,305 payment -- nothing has changed. Go to www.pfd.alaska.gov to start the application process.

This year the state is no longer mailing full application booklets to Alaskans.

Instead, the 76,000 households that applied on paper last year will receive a four-page booklet that includes one adult and one child application and a list of the 270 locations in Alaska where they can get more applications and a full booklet, said Debbie Bitney, director of the state Permanent Fund Dividend Division. A list of these 270 locations can be found at the division Web site. Anchorage has eight sites, including the PFD office and some library branches and senior centers.

She said the state had a huge postage bill every year to mail an application booklet that most people tossed in the trash.

Meanwhile, every year a couple of thousand Alaskans forget to file by the March 31 deadline, apply after that date and as a result have their application rejected, Bitney said. Handling these applications is expensive for the state, and the failed applicants get mad about being turned down, she said.

So Bitney is using some of the postage savings for an ad campaign to remind people to apply. The ads will appear periodically in January, February and March.

Another change to this year's program: Everybody will be paid on Oct. 7, Bitney said.

In the past, early online applicants who requested direct deposit of their payments got their money before other applicants.

A new payment system at Bitney's division now allows the direct deposits and mailing paper checks to occur at the same time, she said.

The annual dividend is paid from the investment profits -- averaged over the past five years -- from the state's Permanent Fund, a $34 billion oil-wealth savings account.

Based on the fund's current projection for this fiscal year's investment profits, the 2010 dividend will be smaller than last year's $1,305. But the actual payment will depend on how the stock, bond and real estate markets perform in the next six months.