There are 3 popular online resume formats used widely today. These online resume formats include ASCII Text, HTML and PDF.
The content below assumes that you have a basic understanding of these 3 formats for online resumes. ASCII Text is basic text that you would use in an email message. HTML is markup language that used to build web pages. The PDF format is Adobe's format for presenting documents that are embedded within page and cannot be edited by common word processing editors. PDF's are formatted more like a graphical picture, with improved formatting for viewing text images. To edit these documents you need either Adobe® Acrobat® or other specialized software.
If you are unfamiliar with ASCII Text, HTML and PDF online resume formats, then you may want to do some preliminary research on these topics.
ASCII Text Online Resumes
ASCII Text Resumes are the most widely used format for posting to an online resume to an online job board or sending your resume through an email. If you are going to submit your resume to online job boards such as Monster.com, you need to make sure that you properly format your online resume in ASCII Text.
General Rules for Converting Resumes to ASCII Text:
- Avoid centering information on the document
- Make sure that all information is left justified
- Eliminate all bullets and replace with an ASCII Character ( * or - )
- Make sure that there are no extra tabs or character returns in the document
- Try not to group too much info. Put spaces between headings.
Tip: It is always a good idea to copy your resume into a text editor or save as a text file and format the resume in a text editor. Avoid copying and pasting directly from your word processing software into an online text box. Depending on the software and operating system, you may accidentally copy some of the hidden character marks.
HTML Online Resumes
HTML is the markup language used by the web browser to display web content. HTML controls the format, fonts, margins, layouts, colors, tables, links and several other items on the web page. For a programmer or software developer, HTML is a fairly simple language, but for the novice it can be difficult to understand. The biggest problem with HTML is that is not really standardized and may display differently, depending on the type of browser used to view the web page. HTML online resumes will also look different, depending on the user's browser settings.
General Rules for Online resumes in HTML format:
- Be careful, check your code and view the resume on various browsers
- Tables can be used effectively for formatting the content.
- Stick to common fonts like Times New Roman or Arial.
- HTML Editors, Microsoft® FrontPage® can be helpful in developing HTML resumes.
- Check to see how your resume looks using various font sizes in the browser.
- Check to see how your resume looks using various screen resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, etc)
- The use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be helpful.
PDF Online Resumes
The .pdf format is the extension used by Adobe® Acrobat®. This format is becoming very popular as an alternative format for HTML. The benefit of the PDF format is that the document is "embedded." Therefore, it is not browser dependent and will look the same regardless of the user's browser. It does require that the viewer has the Adobe® Acrobat® viewer installed on their machine, but this is becoming more common as new computers generally come with Acrobat Reader pre-loaded and it's almost a necessity for anyone that does any kind of browsing of the Internet. Converting a document to PDF format requires the Adobe® Acrobat® or third party software that can convert various document formats to PDF (such as plug ins for Microsoft® Word®). As a third options, there are online web sites that can convert document formats by simply uploading your document and emailing the converted product to you.
