e-Resume: ASCII text   
ASCII Text?
ASCII is an acronym, which stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange," and is used to describe files that are stored in clear text format. In ASCII text, there is no formatting within the document and the text is not platform or application specific. So features like bold fonts, italics, etc., cannot be used. ASCII allows employers to read resumes without worrying about the MS Word format and virus problems.

How Does ASCII Work?
In technical terms, ASCII is a coding scheme, which assigns numeric values to letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and certain other characters. By standardizing the values used for these characters, ASCII enables computers and computer programs to exchange information regardless of platform. There are 128 standard ASCII codes, each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111. As ASCII is the worldwide standard for these code numbers, the standard ASCII character set is universal among microcomputer hardware and software.

Writing resume in ASCII?
To create an ASCII resume, use Notepad for writing resume or write resume by using available word-processing application on computer, and then save it as a text-only document or as Rich Text Format (*.rtf). This can be done by using "save" or "save as," command.

The ASCII text resume will not recognize special formatting commands specific to word-processing programs. Therefore, following mistakes should be watched:
1. Alignment - In ASCII, everything is by default left justified, so to indent a sentence or for putting a heading in center, use the spacebar.

2. Tabs - Do not use tabs. Use your spacebar instead.

3. No Special Characters - Special characters such as Bullets, Mathematical symbols, etc., are not exactly transferred in the ASCII text format, so avoid using these characters and reformat the ASCII text resume.

4. Word Wrap - Never use word wrap feature while typing resume in notepad. Use hard carriage returns (enter) to insert line breaks.

5. Fonts - Fonts will become whatever a computer uses as its default face and size, so boldface, italics, and various sizes will NOT appear in the ASCII version.

6. Spell Check - As you cannot spell-check into notepad, always check the spellings in your document before saving it as a text file.

7. Use capitals, spacing, hard line breaks, and non-special characters, such as asterisks where attention is required.

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