[SOLVED] want to write a CV that also works in Microsoft Office how?

[jingo811]

I'm writing my CV in OpenOffice but most ppl only use Microsoft Office in the real world. Got any tips on what fonts and pre-made templates that I can use?
Or some other handy tips?

[popch]

Write your CV any way you want and mail it as PDF; you don't expect anyone to change your CV, I presume?

[jingo811]

Smart thinking. I just hope the office ppl in the real world have some PDF reader otherwise I'll just be sending to "Return to Sender".

[popch]

Smart thinking. I just hope the office ppl in the real world have some PDF reader otherwise I'll just be sending to "Return to Sender".

They have, in my world, anyway.

I think it quite normal to receive CVs, offers and such as PDFs. I would find rather weird to receive editable documents.

[frenchn00b]

I'm writing my CV in OpenOffice but most ppl only use Microsoft Office in the real world. Got any tips on what fonts and pre-made templates that I can use?
Or some other handy tips?

crossover is made for this !!!

no vmware it is damn slow

[jingo811]

Don't really understand what you meant with "crossover!!" But a Windows user friend sent me an MS Office template with some nice graphical layouts that I could never imagine or do.

I can see the layout. But once I start to mix fonts and press Enter too many times the whole layout just collapses and dies.
That's why I'm so sceptic about using Openoffice in an MS Office dominated job market.

[solitaire]

I usualy have my CV stored in 3 formats
*.Doc
(hate to use it but Windows is everywhere un upper management something to do with IQ levels...)
*.RTF
Think every text editor can read this
*.TXT
easier to edit when in a rush and stuck using my mobile to update and send a CV to Clients and Agencies

Since a Good CV should NOT have any flashy graphics (unless your job entails flashy graphics) RTF is usually a good safe bet for formatting :)


at a push i've used a CV in *.HTML format but that was to post on a website....

also PDF's are not usually liked by recrutment agency's as they tend to get annoyed not being able to easly "Copy / Paste" your CV into their CRM system :D:D


Getting back to your post question....

a good CV should be about 3 pages of A4 (single sided)

First page
-----contact details
-----Any licences (car, HGV, points :S Forklift etc..)
-----Personal Statement (simple paragraph on your abilities in general)
-----statement regarding the contact of References

Second page
-----Education history and details

Third page
-----work history (include any courses you've done "on the job")

Page 2 and 3 can be swapped depending on the type of job some like academic qualifications, others like work history.

[jingo811]

Since a Good CV should NOT have any flashy graphics (unless your job entails flashy graphics) RTF is usually a good safe bet for formatting :)

also PDF's are not usually liked by recrutment agency's as they tend to get annoyed not being able to easly "Copy / Paste" your CV into their CRM system :D:D

That's what I thought from the beginning so I got rid of the cosmetics and returned to my stupid-simple-layout making it more professional by following this example.
http://www.cv-guiden.se/gratis_guide/cvguide/cv_exempel/cv-exempel-1.htm

Lucky you in my country standard is only 2 pages where I have to fit most of what you wrote on 1 single A4. If I have to shrink things any smaller then they'd have to use microscopes to read my document :(
The second page is only for sucking up no additional summary data :)

[solitaire]

you Sweed's and your Ikea CV's :D lol!

Glad we were of some help :D

[jingo811]

IKEA CV's :confused::) what do you mean?

[forrestcupp]

Smart thinking. I just hope the office ppl in the real world have some PDF reader otherwise I'll just be sending to "Return to Sender".
Every Windows computer I've seen has a PDF reader. If they don't, they need to download Adobe Reader for free. That's a pretty standard thing.

crossover is made for this !!!

no vmware it is damn slow
He's not asking how to use Office in Linux. He just wants to create something that will work in Office in other people's computers.

About the OP:
If you're going to do it in OpenOffice and not as a PDF, make sure you have msttcorefonts installed.

[macogw]

at a push i've used a CV in *.HTML format but that was to post on a website....
Whether you use Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview (on Mac). Evince, or Xpdf, you can select text and copy and paste. I'm not sure about Sumatra PDF, but I'd be very surprised if you couldn't. And very few people have even heard of Sumatra PDF. It's a very lightweight open source pdf reader for Windows that is probably most commonly used as a PortableApp. You're extremely unlikely to find it at any business. They've heard of nothing but Adobe.

also PDF's are not usually liked by recrutment agency's as they tend to get annoyed not being able to easly "Copy / Paste" your CV into their CRM system :D:D
I use LaTeX to do my resume, so pdftex makes the PDF, and if I needed to get html out of it, that's what LaTeX2HTML is for. It should still end up as an accurate representation when compiled to HTML from LaTeX.

Every Windows computer I've seen has a PDF reader. If they don't, they need to download Adobe Reader for free. That's a pretty standard thing.


Yeah, I've never seen a Windows computer that didn't have Adobe Acrobat Reader unless I just reinstalled Windows on it 5 minutes ago and haven't gotten to it yet.

[frenchn00b]

Don't really understand what you meant with "crossover!!" But a Windows user friend sent me an MS Office template with some nice graphical layouts that I could never imagine or do.

I can see the layout. But once I start to mix fonts and press Enter too many times the whole layout just collapses and dies.
That's why I'm so sceptic about using Openoffice in an MS Office dominated job market.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

[ugm6hr]

Write your CV any way you want and mail it as PDF; you don't expect anyone to change your CV, I presume?

I would second PDF. Importantly, PDFs looks the same wherever you view them. This is not the case with .doc (Word) files, where the same file can be opened on Word 97, 2000, XP, 2003 and look different. Specifically, CVs which have pre-defined page breaks can get messed up by different versions of Word.

As for copying / pasting text for recruitment agencies - PDFs generated using the OO PDF creation function can have text selected and copied. Only pdf-cups printed PDFs are generated as images.

[frenchn00b]

That's what I thought from the beginning so I got rid of the cosmetics and returned to my stupid-simple-layout making it more professional by following this example.
http://www.cv-guiden.se/gratis_guide/cvguide/cv_exempel/cv-exempel-1.htm

Lucky you in my country standard is only 2 pages where I have to fit most of what you wrote on 1 single A4. If I have to shrink things any smaller then they'd have to use microscopes to read my document :(
The second page is only for sucking up no additional summary data :)

when you may justify, it you can get even 5 pages with it