The ABCs of ASCII/Plain Text Resumes

Create a text resume for email Create a text resume for pasting into eforms How to email a text resume

Confused by all the different formats and vernacular when it comes to emailing or posting resumes online? First and foremost, you‘ll need to know about ASCII, which stands for American Standard Code of Information Interchange. The acronym is pronounced ask-ee (as opposed to ask-two or ask-eye). ASCII uses a character set that can be interpreted by virtually every operating system and guarantees file compatibility.

The term most often associated with ASCII is "text." When employers ask for your "text resume," they want an ASCII resume. Synonyms for a text resume include plain text, simple text, text only, and text with line breaks. The primary feature of a text resume is its "plain-ness," or lack of formatting enhancements. In other words, no bold, italic, fancy bullets, special fonts, indented text, and the like. Conversely, when employers ask for a "formatted resume," they want a word-processed document, typically in MS Word format.

Different job-search circumstances will require different file formats. If you are pasting the resume into the body of an email message, the "Text Only with Line Breaks" format is best. If you are pasting the resume into e-forms or online "resume builders" commonly found at career Web sites, a "Text Only" file format (without line breaks) will provide better results.

How to Create a
Text Resume to Send in E-Mail

To create an ASCII resume with line breaks for pasting into an email message, follow these directions:

1. Open your MS Word formatted resume (the traditional version). Make any changes, such as adding a category devoted to keywords.
   
   
2. Change the margins for the entire document to 1 inch on the left and 2.5 inches on the right. (This will shorten the line length and enable most email programs to view the document without scrolling repeatedly to the right and left.)
   
   
3. Change the font to Courier 10 pt for the entire document.
   
   
4. Save the file, using a DIFFERENT file name, such as resume4email. Click File, Save As. Choose Text Only with Line Breaks, then click Save.
   
   
5. Open the Windows text editor program, Notepad, to clean up the new file. Make sure that bullets converted properly, add space between paragraphs to improve readability, and eliminate gaps within lines caused by tabs or indents.
   
   
6. Save the changes in Notepad by clicking File, Save.
   

Before emailing the resume, it‘s a good idea to check and see how it holds up. Open Notepad, then copy and paste the file into an email message. To get an idea of how the resume will look once delivered, send the file to both yourself and a friend who uses a different email program.

How to Create a Text
Resume to Paste into an E-Form

To copy and paste your resume into online e-forms at job-search sites or company Web sites, it‘s best to use a Text Only resume (without line breaks). To create this format, follow the instructions below:

1. Open your MS Word formatted resume (the traditional version). Make any changes, such as adding a category devoted to keywords.
   
   
2. Save the file, using a DIFFERENT file name, such as resume4eforms. Click File, Save As. Choose Text Only, then click Save.
   
   
3. Open Windows‘ text editor program, Notepad, to clean up the new file. Make sure that bullets converted properly, add space between paragraphs to improve readability, and eliminate gaps within lines caused by tabs or indents.
   
   
4. Save the changes in Notepad by clicking File, Save.

How to Send a Text Resume by E-Mail

There are several methods to accomplish this task. Here‘s one way:

1. Launch Notepad and open the file (resume4email.txt).
   
   
2. Click Edit, Select All.
   
   
3. Right-click and select Copy.
   
   
4. Launch your email program and start a new email.
   
   
5. With the cursor blinking in the body of the email message, right-click and select Paste (or click Ctrl V to paste).
   
   
6. Address the email and fill in the subject line. Click Send.
   

At first, you may feel that there is a lot to remember. Take heart! After practicing a few times, you‘ll be able to zip a resume off to an employer in less than 30 seconds.

For additional details and tips on converting your resume to ASCII Text and cleaning it up for maximum readability, see eResumes: Everything You Need To Know!