best software for pdf

kiwi · 18 Jan 2007 at 16:40

it's a sad day when people think a .doc is more accessible then a .pdf (portable document format)

and yes, you can search in a pdf.

Mickey · 18 Jan 2007 at 16:59

kiwi said:
it's a sad day when people think a .doc is more accessible then a .pdf (portable document format) and yes, you can search in a pdf.

How many times?

You can't run a plain text search on a PDF, you can get extensions which will let you strip the text from a PDF but even then they're still pretty slow (and depending what you're doing with it, it's hard to retain any formatting/layout).

kiwi · 18 Jan 2007 at 17:33

Mickey said:
How many times?

You can't run a plain text search on a PDF, you can get extensions which will let you strip the text from a PDF but even then they're still pretty slow (and depending what you're doing with it, it's hard to retain any formatting/layout).

both the acrobat reader and all the linux viewers i've used have a normal ctrl+f text search.

Mickey · 18 Jan 2007 at 17:33

kiwi said:
both the acrobat reader and all the linux viewers i've used have a normal ctrl+f text search.

Have you even read the thread?

kiwi · 18 Jan 2007 at 17:42

Mickey said:
Have you even read the thread?

yes. i wasn't really commenting on the individual companies' policies of filtering CVs, rather that a doc file is hardly the epitome of portability. pdf was invented for portability but i'd choose plain text over both doc and pdf.

Mickey · 18 Jan 2007 at 17:47

kiwi said:
yes. i wasn't really commenting on the individual companies' policies of filtering CVs, rather that a doc file is hardly the epitome of portability. pdf was invented for portability but i'd choose plain text over both doc and pdf.

I'd choose the format requested by every agency/HR department i've dealt with, which is doc.

Lagz · 18 Jan 2007 at 19:31

Mickey said:
[*]PDF is one of the worst formats you can use if you're going to be submitting your CV to agencies (or even just large employers) as a text search of the file won't bring up the content. Agencies rely on searching based on keywords to find candidates.

Normally if a company want to look for certain attributes then they will give you a fixed application form rather than ask for a CV. It would be pretty retarded to ask for a CV, not specify a format AND then try and use an automated program to search for specific terms.

Mickey · 18 Jan 2007 at 22:44

Lagz said:
Normally if a company want to look for certain attributes then they will give you a fixed application form rather than ask for a CV. It would be pretty retarded to ask for a CV, not specify a format AND then try and use an automated program to search for specific terms.

Assuming they're looking for someone for a specific position right from the start then yes.

Agencies & bigger companies will keep thousands of CVs on file and match new vacancies to the CVs they already have rather than advertise the new position and wait for new CVs to come in just for that one job. This is when searching the CVs is done.

Is it really that hard to understand?

Lagz · 18 Jan 2007 at 23:26

Its not hard to understand, but then they should specify that it MUST be in a certain format (e.g: .doc).

Personally I write my CV in Word and use the free online convertor provided by adobe to convert it to pdf. That leaves you with both versions and you could send which ever is most appropriate.

If your just asked for a CV and no format is specified, I would always go for Pdf. Its a more portable format, and nerds using linux who love emacs and dont have openoffice wont complain that they cant open it (I guess thats quite a small % of people though!). I also head that .doc files contain old information (i.e: previous edits, corrections), which isn't ideal.

Mickey · 18 Jan 2007 at 23:30

Lagz said:
but then they should specify that it MUST be in a certain format (e.g: .doc).

But they often don't, does that mean you don't want your CV to have the best chance of being picked out?

Lagz said:
I also head that .doc files contain old information (i.e: previous edits, corrections), which isn't ideal.

Only if you have tracking turned on.