How to Post Your Résumé Online

Formatting Issues:

If you are copying your résumé from a document that was created with Microsoft Word or a similar program into an online form, please check for formatting issues that may arise due to underlying differences in the way that Internet browsers and word processing programs format text. Before you click a Save or Submit button, look for possible changes in the location of tabs and other formatting elements and make corrections as needed.

Best Practices:

• Create and edit your résumé off-line, then copy and paste into the online résumé bank.
• Most MS Word documents will copy well, but do watch out for the location of tabs. Also, when you create/edit the MS Word document, it is best to let MS Word wrap text for you. If you have used the enter key at the end of each line instead of letting MS Word wrap text for you, your text might not wrap well when you paste it into online forms.
• We recommend that you create a text-only version of your résumé. "Text-only" is a format that can be read by any computer and used for any online résumé bank.

How to create a Text-Only version of your résumé from a Microsoft Word document:

Check for spelling errors: Fix any spelling errors before you go on to the next step. (press the F7 key to run the Microsoft Word spelling check)

Saving the file: On the "File" menu in Microsoft Word, click "Save As". In the "File name" box, enter a new file name, and in the "Save as type" list, click "Text Only with Line Breaks (*.txt)" and then click "Save".

Making your résumé look good in the text-only format: Be sure to Close Microsoft Word and reopen the new text file. It will automatically reopen with a text editor instead of Microsoft Word. Clean up any spacing or special characters that need fixing. Save your work.

How to Work with Online Forms:

Copying and pasting into the online form: In your résumé text file, use your mouse to select/highlight the section of text that you want, and then click "Edit" and "Copy". Return to the online form.* Click the RIGHT mouse button in the appropriate text-box in the online form. A pop-up menu will appear. Left-click "Paste" in the pop-up menu.
*See instructions below if you would like help deleting text that you don't want.

Deleting text from the online form: Click on the text inside the text-box and use the Delete and/or Backspace key to delete text. Or, if you want to delete everything in the text-box, please left-click anywhere inside the text-box, then hold the Ctrl key and press the "A" key. This will select All of the text in the box. Then press the Delete key.

More Help with Files:

Make backup copies of all of your résumé files and store the backups in a separate location from the originals. Do not rely solely on floppy diskettes which break easily. Other backup options include emailing your résumé files to yourself.