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Follow these step-by-step instructions and you'll have a perfectly clean ASCII text resume.
Use this version of your resume for e-mail, unless you have received specific directions from the recruiter/employer to use another format. This is also the version of your resume that you will use most often to cut-and-paste into the resume forms on Web job sites.
Converting
a Word document to ASCII text:
- Spell check
and then re-save your resume in your word processing program (e.g.
Word) before you move to the next step.
- Open a simple
text editor like Notepad (on the PC, under Start > Programs
> Accessories > Notepad) or SimpleText (on the Mac)
- Start Word
(or your word processing program if you're not using Word), if
it is not already open.
- In Word (or
your word processing program), open the file for your resume.
If you make any changes, be sure to double-check your spelling
and grammar before you save the file.
- Highlight
all the text in your Word document by -
- Clicking
on Edit > Select All, or
- Using
your mouse to run from the top of the file to the bottom,
or
- On your
PC, holding down the Control and the "a" keys simultaneously.
Highlight
-- You will know that the text is highlighted because
the background and letters of highlighted content are
in reverse from their normal state (black background
with white letters is the highlighted state for normal
black letters on a white background).
Don't let your mouse "touch down" anywhere
in the document's window, or the highlighting will go
away, and you will have to start over again. |
- Copy the
highlighted text into your computer's temporary storage (the "Clipboard"
in a PC) by -
- Clicking
on Edit > Copy, or
- On your
PC, press the Control and the "c" keys simultaneously.
- Move to your
simple text editor, most probably Notepad (step 1, above), and
paste the copy of your resume file into this new editor.
- Click
inside the Notepad window, and then
- Click
on Edit > Paste, or
- On your
PC, press the Control and the "v" keys simultaneously.
- Save as
plain text.
- Select
File > Save As, and then
- Name
the file resume.txt (or whatever.txt), with
- in Notepad,
Text Documents selected as the "File of Type"
- You aren't
done yet! You need to adjust the text to make it more readable
and interesting -- Go to Polishing
Your ASCII Resume for more help.
You
will notice that your resume, in Notepad, is not as "pretty"
as it was before. That's because it is now plain text. All special
formats, like bolding and italicizing, have been removed, as have
any graphics or other non-text elements. (Now you know why it
is called "plain" text!) This is a good thing!
At least, for e-mail, it is. You can, and should, take some steps
to improve the way ASCII text looks. It still won't be beautiful,
but it will be more acceptable.
Check out the sample
finished ASCII resume.
(Be sure to read Protecting Your Privacy
and Choosing a Job Site for more information.)
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About the author...
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+
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