How to Convert Your Resume to ASCII

The traditional print resume still has a use, but submitting a plain-text (ASCII) version is the fastest way to get your resume in front of an interviewer. It's a not-so-pretty resume you submit on the Internet, through job sites and email. Even though it's not very pretty, today's technical employers prefer it, because all computers universally recognize ASCII.

There are two ways to convert your word-processed resume to ASCII. One is to simply copy and paste it straight from Microsoft Word into a plain-text editor (like Windows® Notepad), the body of an email, or an online resume form at a job site. Doing it this way automatically converts your resume to ASCII in most cases, but you may lose some formatting in the process. That's because ASCII doesn't support fancy formatting such as bullets (•), bold, Italic and underscoring. It also doesn't support tabs, centering and special characters, like the é in résumé. That means you may have to reformat your resume each time you copy and paste it. Too much work!

A better way is to create an ASCII version in the first place and store it on your computer, so you can conveniently and repeatedly copy and paste it, without reformatting each time.

Tips
When reformatting your ASCII resume, don't include bold, Italic or any other font or fancy formatting commands. Using all UPPERCASE characters for headings works okay though.

Word converts headers and footers to plain text, and sticks them at the bottom of the file. Delete or move them to where they belong. But only one header and footer will work in an ASCII resume, at the very top and bottom. That's because the receiving computer applications decide where to break the pages, if at all. For example, if you placed your name and address in a header in your original resume, move it to the top of your ASCII resume. But if you placed page numbers in footers, just delete them.

Word usually converts bullets (? to asterisks (*). It's up to you if you want to keep them, but some online resume forms don't like them and older optical scanners might not either. The same might apply to bullets, but at least they're nicer looking than asterisks if they come out okay. If want to try to produce bullets, this typically works even in ASCII text:

Turn on Num Lock to activate your numeric keypad, if needed. Press and hold down the Alt key. Type 0149 on your numeric keypad. Release the Alt key.

Word also converts tabs into spaces and left-justifies everything; that is, it aligns all text with the left side of the page. It's easier just to leave everything left-justified and it's perfectly acceptable for ASCII resumes. But if want to spruce up your ASCII resume a bit, use the space bar to indent text, in place of tabs. If you want to create divisions, try hyphens (---), periods (...) or underscores?___).

But it's a good idea to be conservative with sprucing. No one expects ASCII resumes to look fancy. Secondly, the receiving computer applications may have their own ideas about spacing, margins, and text style. You can't be sure where they will wrap your text. (Wrapping is where one line ends on the right and the next line begins on the left.) For example, if you use the space bar to center headings, they may end up not being centered much at the receiving end. An indent consisting of five spaces may end up looking like nine. A division all the way across the page might wrap to the next line. To be sure, skip centering and just type a few spaces and characters for indents and divisions. Never try to right-justify text.

Regardless of the font style of your original resume, Word converts your ASCII resume font to Courier, which is fine for such. But when you copy and paste your resume into an email, your application may convert it to a less-suited font, depending on what you have selected as the default in your application options. Be sure to convert it back to a standard font. Times New Roman, Courier, and Arial all work well for ASCII resumes. Also be sure your email sending format is plain text, not HTML.

To test your new resume, save it. If Word warns you that formatting will be lost, you've included one or more formatting commands that don't work in ASCII. But, no harm done. Just click Yes to continue saving your new resume. Then close and open it again. Word automatically removes whatever you did that displayed the warning.

To further test your new resume, copy and paste it into the body of an email and send it to yourself. Make formatting adjustments as needed.

Once you have reformatted your resume in ASCII and tested it, it's ready to copy and paste into emails and online resume forms. Inevitably, an online form will have a mind of its own and you'll end up tweaking your format within the space provided. But occasional tweaking is still easier than reformatting each time you copy and paste your resume.

Steps
The procedure is simple, because Microsoft Word does much of the work for you. The directions below assume that you already know how to use Word. But graphics are included if you need some help. Just click the links. Converting your resume to ASCII in most other word processors is similar.

2. Start Microsoft Word.
4. Open your .doc resume file.
5. Save your .doc resume file as a Text Only (*.txt) file.
6. You'll note that your resume hasn't changed. Close the .txt file.
7. To see the changes, open the .txt file.
8. Reformat your resume and save it. See Tips.

What is ASCII

ASCII (pronounced askee) is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a simple text format that does not use formatting specific to any particular application. Because of this, documents saved as an ASCII (or text file) can be used across all platforms.

And Why Are You Telling Me This?

Now that you've invested in great word processing software that will make any document you produce as stylish as any magazine, I'm telling you to forget all that fancy stuff. Why would you want to do that? Have you taken a look at any online job listings lately? Many online resume banks require you to submit your resume in ASCII or in plain-text format. Many companies that allow you to submit your resume via email also require this plain text format.

These companies request that your resume be sent not as an attachment, but rather as part of your email message. If you are sending a resume by snail mail, you can do a fancier version of your resume. Be mindful, though, of whether a scannable resume is required.

Let's Get Started

Now you know what ASCII is and why you may need to use it, let's learn how. Writing your resume in ASCII format is easy. Making it look good may take a little work.

What Software Do I Need?

That's the beauty of it -- you do not need any special software. Any word processing software will do. However, you must save the document you create as a plain text file. When you try to save a document in most word processing programs, it will default to the format used by that particular program. Under the list of formats that pop up when you try to save a file, you will have to select the text format. You may also work in a text editor, such as Microsoft NotePad, that comes packaged with Windows 3.1 and up, or Note Tab, which is available in freeware and commercial versions.

Some Pointers

• Line length should not exceed 80 characters
• Do not use word wrap -- use hard returns instead
• You cannot use bullets in ASCII format -- instead use astericks or hyphens (dashes)
• Use a fixed width font, i.e. 10 point Courier
• Use spaces to line up your text
• Use left justification, and use spaces to center text