Plain text resume, the details

Plain Text Resume: When You Need One, and How to Format It

This is the detail page behind the short plain text guide. It covers which systems require plain text, how to convert your resume, and how to format the TXT version so it reads well.

Convert my resume to TXT Back to the short version

Free account for downloads. No credit card. No watermark.

Quick answer

1. Import your existing resume at smoothapply.com/resume-builder/?start=import, or build one from a template or an example.
2. In the download menu, choose TXT. The export uses capital headings, hyphen bullets and blank lines between sections.
3. Paste it into the application box or attach the .txt file. TXT download works without an account.

When you need a plain text resume

Plain text is not a style choice. It is what certain application systems require, and if you paste a formatted document into them, the result is a wall of broken spacing. As one guide puts it, if the job posting says paste your resume below or submit as .txt, that is your answer, because a Word or PDF document loses its formatting the moment it hits that box (as of September 2026, jobalign.app).

Paste your resume here fields. Career sites and applicant tracking front ends often offer a text box instead of, or as well as, a file upload. University career services have long advised that some employer systems require you to copy and paste your resume into an online form (as of September 2026, resufit.com).
Resume paste blocks in Taleo and similar systems. Some enterprise ATS products let candidates paste resume text, then parse it to prefill the application. Clean text parses; pasted PDF text with broken lines does not.
Email bodies. When a recruiter asks for your resume in the email itself, or when attachments are blocked, plain text is the only version that reads the same in every mail client.
Job boards that ask for .txt. A minority of boards and government portals still accept only text uploads.
Backup for parsing problems. If a system misreads your PDF, pasting the plain text version into the profile fields is the quickest fix.

Step 1

Get your resume into the builder

If you already have a resume as a PDF or Word file, import it at smoothapply.com/resume-builder/?start=import. The importer reads the file and places your contact details, experience, education and skills in the editor. If you are starting fresh, pick a template or one of the occupation examples and fill in your details.

Keep the content complete. The plain text version should carry the same jobs, dates, results and keywords as your PDF, because it is the version some systems will read instead of the PDF.

Step 2

Download TXT

Open the download menu and choose TXT. The export is built for pasting: section headings in capitals, one blank line between sections, hyphens for bullets, and dates on the same line as the role so a parser can pair them. TXT download does not require an account. PDF and DOCX downloads need a free account so the resume is saved to your profile; there is no watermark and no credit card on any of them.

Open the file once before you paste it. If a bullet is very long, break it into two so no single line runs past the width of a form field.

Plain text formatting rules

Everything a text box can display is letters, numbers, punctuation and line breaks. These rules keep the result readable and parseable.

Headings in capitals with a blank line before them: SUMMARY, EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, SKILLS.
Hyphens or asterisks for bullets, one per line. Never paste the round bullet character; it becomes a question mark in some systems.
No tabs, no columns. Use a single space or a vertical bar to separate items on one line, such as city, phone and email.
Keep lines under about 80 characters. Long lines wrap unpredictably in narrow form fields.
Spell out what icons used to show. Write Phone and Email if the field needs labels, and write the full URL for LinkedIn.
Straight quotes and plain hyphens. Curly quotes and long dashes are the characters most likely to turn into garbage after a paste.

What it looks like

JANE RIVERA
Registered Nurse
Austin, TX | (512) 555-0143 | [email protected]

SUMMARY
Registered nurse with 6 years in medical-surgical and telemetry units.
Charge nurse experience, BLS and ACLS certified.

EXPERIENCE
Registered Nurse, Telemetry Unit
St. David's Medical Center, Austin, TX | Mar 2021 - Present
- Care for 5 to 6 patients per shift on a 32-bed telemetry unit
- Serve as charge nurse two shifts per week, coordinating 8 nurses
- Reduced fall incidents on the unit by 30% through hourly rounding

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
University of Texas at Austin | 2019

SKILLS
Telemetry monitoring, IV therapy, Epic EHR, patient education, ACLS, BLS

Keep the PDF for everything else

Plain text is for the paste box. For attachments, uploads and anything a person will open, send the PDF, and keep a DOCX for employers who ask for Word. Because all three come from the same resume in the builder, you edit once and download the format each application asks for. The same content, the same keywords, and no surprises when a system reads one version and a recruiter reads another.