There’s no way around it, if you’re in the business of working for a living, you’re going to need a resume. When it comes to creating this winning document, Microsoft Word may just be one of the most popular programs out there. Below are a few basics for creating a professional and clean resume in Word.
Add Bullets to Existing Text
- Select the items you want to add bullets or numbering to.
- On the Home tab, select the bullet icon circled below
- To move your bullet point, use the downward arrow on the ruler bar that lies below the menu and just above your document. Slide it to the correct location.
Use the Built-In Thesaurus
When those action words that make a resume so exciting just aren’t coming to you, you don’t need to hop online to use a thesaurus, there is one right in Word! To use it, highlight an entry and press Shift+F7. Pretty easy, right? Or maybe we should say it’s simple, uncomplicated, straightforward, or effortless 🙂
Copy Formatting Using the Format Painter
The Format Painter is a very useful option which copies the formatting from specific portions of the document and applies it to other portions of your document. Use this tool on header sections of your resume (i.e. Objective, Experience, Education). You will want each header to be the same size and font and the format painter will help you do it quickly! Here’s how:
- Select the text that has the formatting you want to copy. (To copy text formatting, select a portion of a paragraph. To copy text and paragraph formatting, select all of a paragraph, including the paragraph mark.)
- On the Home tab in the Clipboard group, click Format Painter.
- After the pointer changes to a paintbrush icon, select the text or graphic that you want to format.
Highlight an Entire Sentence With a Click
Clicking and dragging is for the birds! If you want to select a single sentence, hold down the Ctrl button and click on any word. Boom – sentence highlighted! As a side note, double-clicking selects a single word, and triple-clicking selects an entire paragraph.
Hope these tips help you to get started with your resume. If you have any questions please reach out to me  at KDavis@daviscos.com.
