How to Build an ATS-Friendly Resume That Still Looks Designed

An applicant tracking system (ATS) pulls the text out of your resume and files it into fields: name, job titles, dates, skills. It does that best when the layout is one column, the section names are the usual ones, and the PDF contains real text rather than a picture of text. You can have all three and still have a resume that looks cared for.

Step 1: start from the example or from empty

Open the resume builder. A first visit shows a filled-in example resume on the paper, so you can see what each section produces. Edit it directly, or choose Start fresh to clear it. If you made a backup earlier, Load a resume file restores it.

Step 2: fill the sections in order

The form is a list of sections, one open at a time. Header holds your full name, professional title and a short summary. Contact holds location, email and phone. Then Experience (role, company, dates, description), Education (degree, institution, dates), Skills (a group name and a comma-separated list), Projects and Links. The meter at the top counts how many sections have something in them, for example "5 of 7 sections filled".

Within a section, each entry has move earlier, move later and remove buttons, so you can put your most recent role first without retyping it.

For ATS reading, two habits matter more than design. Write job titles the way the job ad writes them, if that is honestly what you did. And put skills in the Skills section as plain words, not only inside descriptions, so a keyword match finds them.

Step 3: add only the sections you need

Add a section, under the form, lists six extras: Certificates, Awards, Languages, Volunteer experience, Publications and Interests. These names are fixed, which helps here: they are the headings a parser expects. You can remove an added section again from the form.

Step 4: choose the look

The toolbar above the paper has the Template picker (Classic, Modern, Compact), six accent color swatches, and a Text menu with Font (Sans, Serif, Mono), Text size (Small, Medium, Large) and Spacing (Comfortable, Compact). Modern puts your name in an accent-colored header band. Compact tightens the space between entries and sections. None of these changes the reading order, so pick on looks. Mono is the one to think twice about: it reads as a code style and fits fewer words per line.

There are no bold, italic or bullet buttons, no photo field and no columns. For ATS purposes that is not a loss: photos and side columns are the usual things parsers get wrong.

Step 5: export a text PDF

Select Export PDF. The tool asks for at least your name first, then opens your browser's print dialog with your name as the document title. Choose Save as PDF as the destination. The page is set to A4 with a small margin. If your browser adds a date and web address at the top and bottom, turn off the Headers and footers option in the dialog. The PDF you save contains real, selectable text, which is what a parser needs.

Your work stays in this browser and saves as you type. Use More, then Backup, to keep a resume.json copy. If you are unsure how much to include, the length guide covers it.