How do you make a CV in Microsoft Word?

Choose a template, or decide to start blank

Microsoft's support page for resumes gives the route. In Word for Windows, go to File, New, type Resume in the search box and double-click a template. On a Mac, choose File, New from Template and search the same way. Either way you then replace the placeholder text with your own details. Word for the web is free with a Microsoft account, according to Microsoft's comparison of the subscription and the free web apps, and new files there save to OneDrive automatically.

Read what Microsoft says about tables

The same help page says that many of the templates use tables to lay the page out, and shows how to add a row (Table Layout, Insert) and how to hide the grid (Table Design, Table Borders, No Border). Hiding the borders hides the lines, not the table. Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system, lists complex tables, headers and footers, text boxes and columned layouts among the reasons a resume fails to parse. So a template is a starting point to test, not a verdict.

The set Microsoft labels ATS-friendly

Microsoft Create has a separate gallery of ATS resume templates, described as layouts with clear sections for contact details, work history, skills and education, opened in Word for the web. The label is Microsoft's. Treat it the way you would treat any template: fill it in, export it and run the structure test further down this page.

When a blank document is the better start

If every template you like is built on a table or a sidebar, a blank page with four heading styles takes about as long to set up as stripping a template, and nothing hidden comes with it. The rest of this page works the same either way.

Give the CV a structure with styles

Styles are named bundles of formatting. Microsoft's page on headings says heading styles make text stand out, help readers scan, and let you change the design later without touching each heading by hand. For a CV the useful set is small.

A style map for a one-column CV

Change a style once, everywhere

1. Select a heading you have already formatted the way you like.
2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, right-click the style and choose Update Heading 1 to Match Selection.
3. Or right-click the style, choose Modify, and set font, size, spacing and colour in the dialog.
4. Tick New documents based on this template only if you want the change in every future file; otherwise leave it for this CV alone.

Which typeface and point size to choose is covered in the guide on CV font and size, so this page does not repeat it.

Test the structure in the Navigation pane

Press Ctrl+F, or open View and select Navigation Pane, then the Headings tab. Microsoft's page states two things that make this a free structure test: headings show up there only if they carry a heading style, and headings inside tables, text boxes, headers or footers are not shown.

1. Open the pane and read the list: every section of your CV should be there, in order.
2. A section heading that is missing either has no heading style or sits inside a table, a text box, a header or a footer.
3. Click the missing heading in the page. If the Table Layout tab appears, it is in a table; if the header area opens, it is in the header.
4. Move the text into the normal body of the page, give it Heading 1 and check the pane again.

This is our reading of the pane, not a parser: it does not show what an applicant tracking system will extract. It does show, in seconds, which parts of your page live in the containers Greenhouse lists.

Reorder sections by dragging

In the same Headings tab you can drag a heading to move its whole section, for example Education above Experience for a graduate CV, and right-click a heading to change its level.

Export the PDF with settings that suit a CV

Windows

If the CV is already saved, choose File, Save a Copy; if not, File, Save As. Choose Browse, pick PDF in the file type list and select Save. The settings below sit behind More Options, then Options.

Mac and Word for the web

On a Mac, choose File, Save As or Save a copy, open File Format at the bottom of the window and choose PDF. Microsoft notes a known Mac issue: with Best for printing, hyperlinks may not convert correctly, so click your LinkedIn or portfolio link in the PDF before sending. In Word for the web, Microsoft's resume page gives File, Export, Download as PDF; its PDF page also describes File, Print with Save as PDF as the printer, which makes a basic PDF.

The Options dialog, setting by setting

After saving, open the PDF and try to select a line. If you can, the text is real text. Converting between tools, phones included, has its own guide on turning a CV into a PDF.

Clean the file before it leaves your computer

A Word CV that has been edited for months can carry comments, tracked changes, old author names and hidden text. Microsoft's Document Inspector finds them. Microsoft advises running it on a copy, because removed content may not come back with Undo.

1. File, Save As: save a copy of the CV under a new name.
2. In the copy, choose File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document.
3. Tick the content types to check and select Inspect.
4. Select Remove All next to comments and revisions, document properties and personal information, and hidden text.
5. Leave headers and footers alone only if they are empty; if your contact details are there, move them into the body first.

What the inspector cannot see

Microsoft says it detects only text formatted as hidden, not text hidden another way, such as white text on a white background. If you ever pasted keywords in white, delete them by hand; the guide on hidden prompts in resumes explains why that trick backfires.

Name the file

Microsoft's resume page suggests your name and the word resume in the file name, in the pattern LastName_FirstName_Resume. The guide on the email that carries your CV covers file names in more detail.

Who this page is not for

• You want a designed, multi-column page for a portfolio role. Word can do it, but a design tool is easier; the Canva guide shows how to test what such a tool exports.
• You have no Word licence and no Microsoft account. Google Docs does the same job; its own guide follows the same order as this one.
• You only need to choose between sending PDF or DOCX. The PDF-or-Word guide answers that from each applicant tracking system's documentation.

Other routes to the same CV

CitedCV writes a CV only from the facts you give it, and every PDF and DOCX export is read back by a text extractor and compared with the CV it should carry. You can still open the DOCX in Word afterwards and work with it as described above.

Sources, read on 13 October 2026

• Microsoft Support, Use a template to create a resume: File, New and Resume search; tables in many templates; File, Export, Download as PDF in Word for the web; the LastName_FirstName_Resume pattern.
• Microsoft Support, Save or convert to PDF: the Windows, Mac and web steps and every option in the table above, including the Best for printing link issue on Mac.
• Microsoft Support, Add a heading and Customize or create new styles: Update to Match Selection, the Modify dialog and New documents based on this template.
• Microsoft Support, Use the Navigation pane in Word: headings in tables, text boxes, headers and footers are not shown.
• Microsoft Support, Remove hidden data and personal information: the Document Inspector steps and its limit on white text.
• Greenhouse Support, Unsuccessful resume parse (updated 2 March 2026): the layout causes quoted on this page.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Microsoft Support, Use a template to create a resumesupport.microsoft.com/en-us/word/use-a-template-to-create-a-resume
2. Microsoft Support, Save or convert to PDF or XPS in Office desktop appssupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/save-or-convert-to-pdf-or-xps-in-office-desktop-apps-d85416c5-7d77-4fd6-a216-6f4bf7c7c110
3. Microsoft Support, Add a headingsupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-a-heading-3eb8b917-56dc-4a17-891a-a026b2c790f2
4. Microsoft Support, Customize or create new stylessupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/customize-or-create-new-styles-d38d6e47-f6fc-48eb-a607-1eb120dec563
5. Microsoft Support, Use the Navigation pane in Wordsupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-the-navigation-pane-in-word-394787be-bca7-459b-894e-3f8511515e55
6. Microsoft Support, Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documentssupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/remove-hidden-data-and-personal-information-by-inspecting-documents-presentations-or-workbooks-356b7b5d-77af-44fe-a07f-9aa4d085966f
7. Microsoft Support, What's the difference between a Microsoft 365 subscription and free web appssupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-the-difference-between-a-microsoft-365-subscription-and-free-web-apps-36a2c67d-3488-4cad-ae9d-470d0086e2b9
8. Microsoft Create, ATS resume templatesword.cloud.microsoft/create/en/ats-templates/
9. Google Workspace, Google Docsworkspace.google.com/products/docs/
10. Greenhouse Support, Unsuccessful resume parsesupport.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse