# What's the best program to write your resume with? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 24, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300 "2003-08-24T08:16:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vlad\_M.Paler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d26b3c/32.png) [@Vlad\_M.Paler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_M.Paler)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/1 "2003-08-24T08:16:20Z")
I don’t want to make something fancy–keep it simple, stupid–but Word is a pain in my ass. I think the question speaks for itself–what’s your fave? ---
**Author:** ![freetobeme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@freetobeme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freetobeme)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/2 "2003-08-24T10:03:28Z")
Word. I’ve tried Resume Maker and it does make the ‘starting from scratch’ process a little easier by letting you fill in the blanks. It also formats the Resume properly so you don’t need to sweat that. What it doesn’t do. Make a resume interesting. You’re on your own there. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/3 "2003-08-24T10:51:45Z")
Word is indeed a pain in the ass, but it’s what I use. You could try some DTP software such as Quark XPress, but I think you’d find that even more of a pain in the ass. If you learn to use headers and footers and pre-formatted same-page section breaks, you’ll find it a lot easier in Word. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/4 "2003-08-24T15:24:01Z")
I had to write one on Friday. Yes, Word was too much of a PITA, so I used Wordpad. It came out fine. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/5 "2003-08-24T16:26:19Z")
I use Word. I’ve subconsciously come to the conclusion that all software must be wrestled with in order to get results. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/6 "2003-08-24T16:48:44Z")
Whatever the technical merits of writing the resume with other programs, I’d have to say that you should use Word. This is because many employers will ask you to e-mail them your resume in MS Word format. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/7 "2003-08-24T17:12:21Z")
A good point to keep in mind, **Billdo**. I’ll note here that Wordpad saves files in MS Word format. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/8 "2003-08-25T01:17:23Z")
Mr **Paler** , ditto what they all said above – gotta go with Word because that’s so often what the employers want, poor misguided sods. I would be happy to supply any help making Word behave that you might wish for – I’m not a superduperexpert, but I CAN make it do anything you might wish it to do for a resumé. Seriously. [emilyforce@yahoo.com](mailto:emilyforce@yahoo.com) . ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/9 "2003-08-25T01:43:28Z")
I just thought I should add here… According to employers and others I’ve spoken to, they get a zillion resumes in the Word template styles. So they recommend either not using those templates or playing with the fonts and spacing a bit, so that your resume will not look like everyone else’s. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/10 "2003-08-25T03:05:07Z")
The last time I wrote a resume, I used a typewriter. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-program-to-write-your-resume-with/197300/11 "2003-08-25T04:06:53Z")
You can use whatever you want, but follow instructions. We’d rather have resumes in plain ASCII, so I can cut and paste it into a webform. I know lots of less technical people who are scared of attachments, so ASCII resumes can go in the body of an email.