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02/17/2005: "an open question to Mac users"

We've had our PowerBook for just over a month now, and I'm enjoying it. I still miss having a 103 key keyboard and miss an actual mouse, but those are fairly minor quibbles. It's an outstanding computer, and I'm glad to have it.

Unforunately, it's also causing me some aggravation when it comes to my resume. Specifically, I don't have MS Office on this computer... so what am I supposed to do to update my resume, or submit it electronically?

We have AppleWorks installed, and contrary to what it claims, it can't really handle .DOC files all that well - or at least, it can't handle my resume, which has tables in it. As a result, I've had to start redeveloping my resume in AppleWorks, and in the meantime any updates I have to do I do on my old computer, and then e-mail to myself and save on the Mac. Of course, I have to keep a .DOC version around, as it's pretty much the standard for submitting formatted resumes.

My question to you, the Mac user, is twofold:

1) What do you use to write your resume?

2) How do you submit your resume electronically, if asked for a Word-formatted (.DOC) resume?

Please, please respond. This is driving me nuts.

Replies: 7 Comments

on Thursday, February 17th, Kevin LeBlanc said

Well I just happen to have MS Word on my Mac. Kinda hard to live without. You're right that Appleworks doesn't do the job.

MS Office is not cheap is the problem. If you can qualify for a student edition it is considerably cheaper.

Sorry that doesn't help too much. They do have a free 30 day test drive of the suite:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=office2004td

on Monday, February 21st, Robert Hahn said

I paid the MS tax as well. I used AppleWorks (or WordPerfect - an OS 9 product though) to update my resume, then did one of two things: 1) saved to rtf (most MS users don't know the difference or 2) 'print'ed it to a PDF. OR 3) use .txt - it's a universal format, after all.

Finally, if you're into pain, you can look at OpenOffice.org for a possible way forward. I haven't tried it, so I can't really advise on the best way forward.

Personally, I'm wondering what PC users use if they don't have Office installed on their machine.

on Tuesday, February 22nd, mr.ska said

I actually tried the RTF route, and it really, really didn't work. Well, at least in Appleworks it didn't. I have yet to open it up with Word, but if I can't edit it with Appleworks, I'm euchred.

A friend of mine actually approached the job market with a PDF resume. I have no idea how successful that tactic was, honestly. If Word could open PDFs, I'd do it, but I'm trying to find a way to comply with the typical "MS Word format" request.

Text is OK, but there's not formatting there... I would have a very hard time making a text resume that looked even half as good as a fully formatted one.

Looks like I'll have to pay the MS tax, I guess. I have two possible leads on that... we'll see how much it ends up being.

on Wednesday, February 23rd, Robert Hahn said

PDF's are pretty much ubiquitous these days...

RTF's work very well as long as you don't use tables. They're, from what I can tell, a MS extend-and-enhance strategy.

unless you can get a student rate, Office costs somewhere between ex and pensive, but I think you get Virtual PC with it (check before buying). MS Word, OTOH, costs around $140, i think.

But is a resume worth that much, really?

Ska, I have Word here. Why don't you come by and make whatever edits you need for your resume, and send the cover letter as a separate file (like RTF)?

on Wednesday, February 23rd, mr.ska said

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it.

However, I'm still looking for a better solution... there is nothing like being able to tweak a resume for a specific position, which can only be done if I can edit it here.

I tried AbiWord, but it totally failed to read my .DOC files. However, if it can export .DOC files of sufficient quality, that's what I'll use. After all, it's not editing .DOCs that I need, I just need to be able to make and send them out.

on Thursday, February 24th, Robert Hahn said

Try this one; i've heard good things about it.

http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=12

on Saturday, February 26th, mr.ska said

Mariner did a pretty good job at importing my .DOC file. The bullets disappeared, the indentation was off, and the tables needed de-bordering and a little bit of tweaking, but it's tons better than AbiWord's total inability to read the file at all.

The price is even good... purchase online and satisfy yourself with an electronic manual, and it's only $50 (US, I believe).

However, it still can't *write* a .DOC file. I'll test out how an RTF works, and make a decision based on that. If I can get an RTF to look the same in my word processor as it'll look when an HR person opens it in Word, that's what I'll go with.