Plain Text Resume Converter: See What an ATS Actually Reads
Drop in your PDF or DOCX. You get the plain text a parser extracts from it, in the order it extracts it, plus what the file contains that can trip a parser: pages, images, columns, tables, text boxes and header text, counted from the file itself.
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
Uploads convert as soon as they are read.
Your parser view appears here
Upload the file you actually send to employers. You will see the extracted text, a copy button, an ASCII-safe toggle and a findings table measured from the file.
What does a parser keep, and what does it drop?
A parser turns your file into text first and fields second (see how an ATS reads your resume). What survives the first step depends on how the text is stored in the file, not on how it looks on screen.
| Element | Kept by simple extraction? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Normal paragraphs and bullets | Yes, in order | Nothing. This is the safe format. |
| Standard headings (Experience, Education, Skills) | Yes, and used to file the text into fields | Keep the standard words; "Where I have worked" is not recognised by every parser. |
| Two-column layout (PDF) | Text yes, order no: a simple extractor reads straight across | One column, or make sure each line reads correctly across the page. |
| Tables (DOCX) | Cell by cell, row by row | Replace layout tables with paragraphs; a small skills table is usually fine. |
| Text boxes (DOCX) | Dropped by many parsers | Move the text into the body. |
| Headers and footers (DOCX) | Skipped by some parsers | Put your name and contact details in the body. |
| Text inside images or charts | No | Write it as text. A logo or photo on its own does no harm. |
| Smart quotes, dashes, accents | Yes (ordinary UTF-8) | Nothing, unless a form asks for plain ASCII; the toggle below shows that version. |
How are the findings measured?
- Pages: the PDF reader's page count. A DOCX does not store pages, so none is shown for Word files.
- Images: image objects painted on the pages (PDF) or drawing and picture objects in the document (DOCX).
- Layout: for each line of text, whether its pieces sit in one horizontal band or two bands with a wide gap between them. When most lines are split, the page is multi-column.
- Tables, text boxes, headers and footers: counted directly in the DOCX package XML. Text found inside text boxes and headers is shown so you can check nothing important lives there.
- Text layer: the number of text pieces the PDF reader could extract. Zero means a scanned or image-only PDF.
The findings describe your file; they are not a score. For a score with the top fixes, run the ATS resume checker; to compare your wording against one posting, use the resume keyword scanner.
Plain text resume FAQ
What is a plain text resume?
Your resume with every piece of formatting removed: no columns, tables, text boxes, images, fonts or colours, just the characters in reading order. It is what an applicant tracking system works from after parsing your file, and it is also the format some application forms ask you to paste into a box.
Is this what an ATS sees?
It is close. The converter uses the same kind of text extraction a parser starts with (pdf.js for PDF, the document XML for DOCX), so lines that land out of order here are the lines a simple parser would also misplace. Commercial parsers vary and you cannot choose which one reads your file, which is why the safe target is a resume that reads correctly even in this plain view.
Why does my PDF come out empty?
It has no text layer: it is a scan or an image export. A parser gets nothing from it either. Export the PDF from your editor (Word, Google Docs, our builder) instead of printing and scanning, and check that you can select text in it.
What is wrong with text boxes and tables?
Text boxes are stored outside the main document flow in a DOCX, and many parsers drop them entirely. Tables are read cell by cell, row by row, so a two-column table layout is read straight across, mixing the columns. Put everything in normal paragraphs with standard headings.
Is my resume uploaded?
No. The file is read in your browser with pdf.js and JSZip and never leaves your computer. Nothing is stored. The tool is free and needs no account.
Found a column, a text box or a scan?
The builder's templates are single-column with standard headings, and export a PDF with a real text layer.
See the ATS-friendly templatesRelated free tools
All free toolsResume Keyword Scanner
Compare your resume to a job description: which terms it has as written, in another form, or not at all.
OpenResume Length Checker
Count words, bullets per job and pages, next to the length guidance for your experience level.
OpenATS Resume Checker
Scan your resume like an ATS: a score out of 100 and the 3 fixes that matter most.
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