Hi

I have seen in a few threads recently that the standard size for paper in Canada is smaller than A4 in UK and therefore when submitting resumes you should convert/save your resume to the Canadian size before sending to employers.

Can anybody advise how to save it on MS word in correct size?, I have found the print option where you can alter the size but not on save??

Many Thanks for any help you can offer, sorry if I am being a bit dim

Not sure which version of Word you're using but you should be able to change paper size in page set up. The size you're looking for is "Letter". You can then save this in Word as per any other document. If you're unable to locate page set up post which version of Word and I'll try a step by step guide to talk you through it.

Hope this helps.

Lynne

On a slightly related topic, when you've sorted your page sizes out, it's also quite sensible to distribute your resume in the form of a .pdf, unless a .doc file is specifically requested.

You can print directly to .pdf with the latest version of Office, I believe; if you're using an older version you can get freeware to do the same thing.

This ensures everyone can view it, and also guarentees things like the page breaks etc. you spent ages perfecting will be preserved - which doesn't always happen when moving between versions of Word.

Be aware it seems that about 80% of the world's Mac users are in Canada!

Cheers, Iain

As Lynne said you will find it under "Page Setup" which is just above "Print Preview" in the "File" menu.

Cheers
Steve

Hi, Many Thanks for your replies re this.

Iain- How would I save it as a PDF doc to distribute to people? what save option would I use within MS word, or would I have to do something different to save it?

Thanks again in advance!

Download PDF writer software from Cute PDF.

The PDF writer software will be installed as a virtual printer on your computer.

You click on the print command in the MS-Word document.

When your computer asks you to which printer to send the document, you send it to the Cute PDF virtual printer.

The PDF writer software is not a physical printer, obviously. Rather it takes a virtual snapshot of your document, and saves that snapshot as an electronic file.

Remember to check that the PDF document also has been saved as an 8.5" x 11" page.

Edited to add that, as Surrey Expat always reminds us, use standards fonts (like Times Roman and Arial), because the PDF writer software does not recognize some of the more exotic fonts, and screws them up. A possibility, if you use exotic fonts, is that both the MS-Word and PDF documents may look okay on your computer, but the PDF document may look weird on someone else's computer if you email it to them.
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I have added the bit about downloading a free version of PDF writer software to the Submitting your resume section of the Wiki on Resumes.
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Many Thanks Judy

I will work my resume through this process prior to sending on to Canada.

Another option is to switch to Open Office, which has native PDF export. But the PDF printing software is useful in general (e.g. saving web pages as PDF files from the web browser).

I'd also agree with sending anything that doesn't need to be edited as .pdf files; anyone can read them on any mainstream operating system and they'll look basically the same on paper as they do in the .pdf... you won't suddenly find a different version of Word adding a page break in a different place to screw up your formatting.

Note that you can embed fonts in .pdf files if you really must use something weird; there may be an option in the export or print software to do so.