InDesign Your Resume Final

InDesignyourResuméa how-to guide forcreating a professionalresumé using InDesign

InDesign your ResuméTable of Contentsp4. Glossaryp5. The Importance of Good Designp6. Setting up the Documentp10. Creating a Gridp12. Pasting in Contentp14. Styling the Contentp20. Finalizing and Exportingp22. Dos and Don’tsp24. Further Resources3

InDesign your ResuméGlossary Boilerplate: standardized text; aopen, no matter the operatingresumé contentsystem. Good file format for saving Like it or not, the resumé is the firstDecorative: fonts that are ornateresumésimpression an employer has of you as an artistRule: a line used as a decorativeand as a professional. Potential employers willFull-bleed: the page is trimmed soelement or as a way to separatelikely spend an average of 10 seconds on yourthat some things go off the edge,informationresumé. It must be clear and organized, so thatSans serif: font without the smallit is easy to pick out important informationflourishes on the edge of theat a glance.character, such as ArialConsider your audience—depending on the instead of having a margin aroundthe page The Importanceof Good Designdocument that contains completeand less neutral, such as Papyrus PDF: file format that anyone canThe Importance of Good DesignGrid: system that text-based designs align toSerif: font with small flourishes onindustry standard of your profession or major, Gutter: space between guidesthe edge of the character, such asyou may or may not need to design your Hard-return: line break created byTimes New Romanresumé. Check with Career Development ifSoft-return: line break createdyou are not sure. pressing Enter. Used to separate paragraphs.by pressing Shift Enter. UsedHierarchy: a typographical systemto separate lines of text within athat defines and differentiateparagraph. between levels of text InDesign: program used for creating layouts with lots of text Typography: technique of arrangingKerning: the space between twotext to make content legible,charactersreadable, and appealing whenLeading: the space between eachdisplayed line of text. Make sure it’s not tooWeight: different styles of a font,ie. light, bold, italicloose or too tight Tracking: the space between eachcharacter in a wordPrior to designing your resumé, you shouldhave a boilerplate text document that containsall of your experience in one place. The typeof job you are applying for determines whichexperiences will be included on your resumé. Ifyou do not have your resumé built, please referto Career Development’s “Building Your Resumé”handout (see p24).This is also a good opportunity to spell checkand have your content reviewed by at least oneother person. A good place to do this is duringMargin: the white space around aCareer Development’s Drop-In Hours, or in anpage or shapeappointment with a Peer Career Advisor.45

InDesign your ResuméSetting up the Document First and foremost, after you open InDesign,navigate to the InDesign tab in the top menubar and go to Preferences Units & Increments.Here, you can adjust the settings under RulerUnits from picas to inches. This will make settingup the document much less confusing.step 01Setting up the DocumentNext, you need to set up the document.Under the File tab in the top menu bar go toNew Document. This is where you set up theformatting for your document. Make sure thenumber of pages is set to 1, and facing pagesis unchecked. The page size should be Letter,or 8.5”x11”.67

InDesign your ResuméSetting up the DocumentMargins refer to the distance between thecontent of the document and the edge of thepage. Try to keep your margins between halfan inch and an inch. In the New Documentdialogue, make sure the margins are set tothe desired size.Columns are another way to organize the page.Using two columns is a good way to start, witharound 0.5 inch gutter.You don’t need to worry about changing anyof the other settings in this dialogue. Whenyou are done, press OK, and you should havethe beginnings of your resumé created!Tip: Once your page is created, navigate to the Window tab in the top menu bar, then goto Workspace [Typography]. This will rearrange the toolbars so that it will be easierto adjust text.89

InDesign your ResuméCreating a Grid Working with a grid is a technique that youshould employ whenever working with text. Gridsensure that your content will look neat andorganized, making your resumé easier to read.To create a grid, navigate to the top menu andgo to Layout Create Guides. Once you are inthe Create Guides dialogue, you can adjust theamount of rows and columns as needed. A goodsetting to use is 9 rows with a gutter of 0.1667in. You may have created columns when settingup the document, but you can add more hereif desired. After setting the amount of columnsand rows, under the Options section ensure theguides fit to the margins, not the page. Press OK.step 02Creating a GridTip: Guides won’t show up when you export or print your document. To preview your documentwithout guides, press W on your keyboard.1011

InDesign your ResuméPasting in Content Use the text tool for creating boxes to pasteyour text into. The text tool is located on the lefttoolbar, and looks like a capital T. To create textboxes, select the text tool then click and dragwith your mouse. It’s good to start with threetext boxes: one long box at the top for yourheader (name, contact info, title), and two tallboxes for your sections. Make sure that each boxaligns with the grid.After creating your text boxes, select the desiredtext box, and paste in the appropriate contentfrom your boilerplate document. You can pasteby navigating to the top menu bar, then selectEdit Paste. You can also right click within atextbox and paste from there.step 03Pasting in ContentTip: Text can be connected between columns. If the text gets cut off in a column, a little redsquare with an X will appear. To link the runoff text to another column, click the red x, andthen click the column. The text should now continue into the next column.1213

InDesign your ResuméStyling the Content Typography is one of the most importantaspects of a resumé. If your typography isn’twell-considered, it can make your entire resumélook unprofessional.Hierarchy refers to the different levels oftypography within a document. There shouldbe one element that has the highest levelof hierarchy. Usually this is a title, name, orheading. The next level of hierarchy is typicallya section title. Body text tends to be the lowestlevel of hierarchy.Most resumés consist of a few levels ofhierarchy, such as a main header (your name)a sub header (contact info), section titles(education, experience, etc.), position title(intern, artist, contractor, etc.), company,location/date and a body (description).step 04Styling the ContentTip: When defining levels of hierarchy, follow the rule “distinctly different or exactly thesame.” It is important to create contrast when working with type because too subtle shifts incontrast can appear like a mistake.1415

InDesign your ResuméStyling the ContentA well-designed resumé can be created with justUsing adequate spacing throughout your resuméone font. The key to creating hierarchy with onewill ensure that all of your information readsfont is to use contrasting weights and sizes. Forclearly and legibly. The spacing between linesexample, use a larger, bolder font for headers,of text is called leading. More often than not,and a smaller, lighter font for body copy.the default leading will be too tight, so it isEveryone has different tastes in fonts. The trickimportant to make the adjustment yourself. Tois to keep it professional. Avoid using decorativedo this, go to the Character menu (the samefonts like Comic Sans or Papyrus that distractmenu where you adjusted the text font and size).from the information that really matters.You can adjust the leading using the arrows nextTo adjust fonts in InDesign, highlight the textto the two As stacked up next to each other.you want to change, and click on the CharacterSomething else that is important to adjust is themenu in the right toolbar. Here, you can adjustspace between paragraphs. Instead of creatingthe font, font weight, size, leading, and more.extra line breaks between sections, you can haveOne of the major mistakes people make whendesigning resumés is making their text too big.Body text can usually be read comfortably at 8pt,and should never be larger than 10.5pt. Sizingwill always depend on which font you choose,but a good starting point for body text is 9pt.more control by setting the specific spacingbefore or after paragraphs. To do this, navigateto the Paragraph menu on the right toolbar.You can adjust the paragraph spacing using thearrows next to the icons depicting a paragraphwith the top or bottom line highlighted.Tip: When working with text, turn on Hidden Characters, so you can easily see where you’veTip: Made a mistake? Press Command Z on your keyboard to quickly undo. To redo,inserted spaces, soft returns and hard returns. You can do this by navigating to Type in the toppress Shift Command Z.menu, and go all the way to the bottom where it says Show Hidden Characters.1617

InDesign your ResuméStyling the ContentUsing paragraph styles is a shortcut to stylingOnce you have the styles created, go throughcomplete pages of text all at once. Creatingyour document and change each level ofparagraph styles can be tedious, but can savehierarchy from the default paragraph styleyou so much time and energy.([Basic Paragraph]) to the styles that you justYou can set your paragraph styles by navigatingto the right toolbar and simply opening up theParagraph Styles menu. Once here, click on theicon that looks like a piece of paper to createcreated. To do this, highlight the text that youwant to set, then navigate to the ParagraphStyles menu, hold down the ALT key, and clickon the appropriate style. Holding down on theALT key ensures that you override any previousnew styles.styles applied to the text. Go through yourdocument and set all of the text, one level ofhierarchy at a time.When your text is set to its specific paragraphstyle, you can adjust the styling. Double-clickon the paragraph style, and you can adjusteverything mentioned previously in the guide. Ifdone correctly, you should be able to style eachobject within the paragraph style all at once, amuch quicker way than if you were to style onething at a time.You should create a new style for each level ofyour typographic hierarchy: Heading, SectionTitles, Position, Date/Location, and Body. Donot worry about make any adjustments to thesestyles just yet.Tip: You can also create Character Styles if you want to change styling within a paragraphs,like when you want to bold something or have stylized numbers.Tip: You can make sure all of your objects are aligned properly by navigating to the top menubar and going to Window Object & Layout Align. You can use this tool to line up objectswith the page or with each other.1819