Resume Formatting

The resume templates in MS Word are all right if you're turning in a sample resume to your high school English teacher. But employers recognize templates immediately, and that's why it's important to make a resume design that's all your own.

Today I've got some tips on how to use Microsoft Word to format a resume. Here's the secret behind simple, fast, and effective formatting: tables.

Tables make resume design a piece of cake. You'll see why as you go through this post and try it out. First, open a new MS Word document, click the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Table", then choose a three-column table with as many rows as you can.

Next, let's merge some cells. Highlight a few cells, right click, then click "Merge Cells."

You can see that merging the cell creates one big cell across the table. You can use this big cells for headings, description information, etc. It's great.

Another bonus of tables is that formatting across the table is easy. Want that date and location right-aligned, but the actual position left? Not a problem. Take a look at my sample resume-in-progress:

Once you've got everything formatted, let's work on those  borders. Highlight all your cells, then click "Design" on the ribbon, then click "Borders." Select "No Borders" at first.

Without borders, your table looks more like a familiar resume. Add a border below the heading, or add one to separate sections. You can also adjust the spacing between cells. Here's my finished product:

Easy, simple, and clean. And it's not a template, either. Another cool thing about using templates is that changing the format is simple. Check this out:

 With tables, resumes are fun! Play with it and try out a few different designs. See what you like.