How to Create a Resume to Send In the Body of an Email

Do you do a lot of job hunting on the Internet? Have you ever noticed how messed up a resume can look when you're trying to copy and paste it into an email for employers who say they won't accept resume attachments? Here is a simple way to turn your resume into a document that can be used in any email format.

Things You'll Need

• Copy of your resume in digital format (this tutorial features Microsoft Word format)

Instructions

Convert your Resume from MS Word to ASCII (Text-Only) Format

1. Open your resume document in MS Word. You may have used formatting, such as bold and italics, to highlight certain portions of your resume. You may also have some bullets or numbering that were used to accentuate various statements. The font may be one that is not recognized by an email program that only accepts text messages. There will probably be some tabs used, as well. All of these things can lead to strange characters in the text and misalignment in the body of the resume when you copy and paste it into the body of an email. In the next steps you'll learn how to create a .txt file from your current MS Word version that won't create those problems.

2. Click "File." Look down the File Menu and find the "Save As" menu item. Click on it. A window will open. In the text box for the document name, you'll see that the file name includes the extension ".doc." Delete .doc from the file name and add "ASCII" to the end of the file name. Directly below the file name is a drop-down menu. Click on the arrow and go down the list until you see the menu item "Plain Text (*.txt)." Click on that item. Now click on the "Save As" button in the lower right-hand corner of the window. There will be two more screens on which you'll want to click the okay button. When those are cleared, your document has been saved as a text-only file.

3. Close the current document and then click of the File Menu again. You'll see a list of your most recent documents. Click on the one that says yourfilenameASCII.txt to open the document you just created. When you view this document you should see that everything has been aligned to the left side of the document window, except for where there are tabs and other formatting that interferes.

4. At this point, you should make all necessary alignment adjustments using only spaces. Take out all of the tabs. Replace all of the bullets with an asterisk. Change headings to all capital letters for emphasis, rather than bolding or italicizing. Depending on the original formatting, you might have to spend several minutes on this part. When you're done click the Save icon on the menu bar at the top left side of the document window. You'll see the same two screens you saw when you first saved the resume as a text file. Click "Okay" on both screens.

5. Open your email application. Write your cover letter in an email to the employer. Then, if it's not already open, open your text-only resume. If you're opening it from the documents menu on the start button, or from your documents folder, it will open in MS Notepad. Either way, click on the "Edit" menu button. Then, click on "Select All." Click "Edit," again. Click on "Copy." Now click inside the email window where you wrote your cover letter. Press the "Ctrl" and "V" keys on your keyboard, at the same time. You're newly formatted text-only resume will appear in the email, all nicely aligned and without those annoying characters.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also select all of your resume text by pressing "Ctrl" and "A." You can also copy everything after selecting all by pressing "Ctrl" and "C."