6 Ways to Fix Resume Formatting Mistakes and Save Space

6 Ways to Fix Resume Formatting Mistakes and Save Space Creating a resume where all the content lays out on the page in a way that is easy to read and visually appealing can be challenging. Sometimes in their quest to get all the content on one or two pages, the writer resorts to using design strategies such as a smaller font, tighter margins, or compressed spacing to trim the document. But these strategies are flawed and can make the resume harder to read. Others allow the content to spill over to a second or third page with just a few lines of text on that page. This looks unprofessional and on some level may suggest that you ran out of things to say which is certainly not the message you want to convey. Here are some tips for pruning content to create a tight but easy to read, visually appealing resume.Streamline contact information. Many resumes I see lay out the contact information on 5 or more lines. There is no rule that says the information must be communicated in this way. You can list your name on one line and your address, phon e numbers, and email on a second line and save precious space for other valuable content. You dont need to write out the words address, phone, or email, as this will be obvious to your reader. However, you should reference whether a phone number is a home number or cell number like this: H: 212-555-1111 C: 917-444-5555.Modify margins. You can recoup a great deal of valuable space by readjusting your margins. Microsoft Word often defaults to margins of one inch or more, but you can manually change your margin settings to something smaller. I dont recommend anything lower than .6 for top, bottom, and side margins, but making this adjustment can make a significant difference.Update your punctuation. Many resumes I see still use 2 spaces following the period at the end of the sentence. If you took a typing class decades ago, this is how you were taught to do this. But this rule has been modified due to the flexibility computers offer us in regards to character spacing and the new norm i s to use one space following the period. Sometimes making these minor adjustments determine if a sentence falls on one line or two.Use numbers instead of words. Generally, when writing a number that is less than ten, the protocol is to write out the number. But in resume writing (and blog posts), the numbers are often very important indicators of impact and it is best to use the numerical representation of the number. Rather than writing propelled sales to ten million dollars in just three years try propelled sales to $10M in just 3 years.   And a side benefit is that by using the numerical representation you will save valuable space.Eliminate articles. In resume writing, the articles the, a, and an are understood. You can write managed $3M account rather than managed a $3M account and you can write led team tasked with creating first help desk rather than led the team tasked with creating the first help desk.   By eliminating these words you save room for something else you need to say.Get rid of orphans. Orphans represent single words that fall on a separate line in the resume. Review any sentences where this occurs to see if you can rephrase a sentence to eliminate the orphan and use space more constructively.