The short version: open Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online, or Zoho Writer, pick a plain one or two column template, fill it with results not duties, save it as a PDF, and stop fiddling with fonts before you’ve written a single achievement. The tool matters far less than what you put in it, and I’ll show you exactly how to do both.
Why I’m writing about a “boring” tool topic
A few months ago my nephew asked me to look at his CV before he applied for a marketing coordinator job in Manchester. He’d spent four evenings in a paid design app building something with three colours, a photo, and a skills bar chart that looked like a wifi signal icon. It was lovely to look at. It also got rejected by an applicant tracking system before a human ever saw it, because the graphics broke the parsing.
We rebuilt the whole thing in Google Docs in under ninety minutes. Plain layout, clear headings, real numbers in every bullet. He got two interviews from five applications the following week. That’s the story I keep coming back to when people ask me whether they need Canva Pro or a resume builder subscription to write a decent CV: no, you don’t. You need a free document tool and a clear head about what goes in it.
Which free online document tool to use
There are four I’d point anyone toward, and I’ve used all of them with clients:
- Google Docs, free with any Google account. Best for collaboration, since you can share an edit link with a friend for feedback in real time.
- Microsoft Word Online, free with a Microsoft account. Best if the company you’re applying to uses Word documents internally, because formatting sometimes travels more cleanly.
- Zoho Writer, free, less known, but has a clean set of resume templates and exports a very tidy PDF.
- LibreOffice Writer (via LibreOffice Online or downloaded free) if you want something that works offline too and never asks you to log in.
I default to Google Docs for most people simply because almost everyone already has an account, it autosaves, and it’s the easiest to get a second pair of eyes on before you submit anything.
Step by step: writing the resume itself
Here’s the exact sequence I walk people through, in the order I’d do it myself.
- Open a new blank document, not a fancy template, and set the page margins to 1 inch (2.54cm) all round. Fancy templates come later, if at all.
- Type your name at the top in a slightly larger font, 16 to 18 point, bold. Underneath it, one line with phone number, email, city, and a LinkedIn URL if you have one.
- Write a three line summary under your name. Not “hard working team player”, but something like: “Marketing coordinator with 4 years’ experience running paid social campaigns for retail clients, including a £40,000 quarterly ad spend I managed directly.”
- Add a “Skills” section with 8 to 12 specific, searchable terms, not vague ones. If you’re stuck on what belongs there, I’ve written a full breakdown on how to write the skills section of your resume and it’s worth ten minutes before you fill this bit in.
- Under “Experience”, list jobs newest first. For each one: job title, company, dates, then three to five bullet points that start with a verb and end with a number wherever you possibly can.
- Add “Education” below that, then any certifications, then stop. Don’t add a hobbies section unless it’s relevant to the role.
- Keep it to one page if you have under 10 years of experience, two pages if you have more. Nobody in HR is impressed by a three page resume, I promise you that.
That whole structure fits inside a plain Google Doc with zero design elements, and it will beat a beautifully designed two colour document nine times out of ten in an ATS-scanned application.
The uncomfortable bit nobody tells you about formatting
Here’s the part most people don’t want to hear: the time you spend making your resume look polished in a free tool is very often time wasted, because most mid to large companies run your document through software before a human reads a word of it. Tables, text boxes, headers and footers, columns, icons, that little skills bar chart my nephew made, all of it can get mangled or dropped entirely by an ATS. You could spend three hours perfecting a two column layout with a sidebar and have the system read your job titles in the wrong order, or miss your phone number completely because it sat in a header field the parser ignores.
So the honest advice is: build it plain first, submit it plain to any online application, and only build a designed version for the moments a human is handed a printed or emailed copy directly, like a networking contact or a recruiter you’ve spoken to on the phone. If you want to understand exactly what an ATS is checking for, I’ve laid it out in what an ATS friendly resume template is and why it matters, and it will change how you think about every formatting decision from here on.
Using a template inside your free tool without wrecking it
If you’d rather not build from a blank page, Google Docs’ own template gallery holds several resume layouts under the Resumes heading, and you can find more by typing “resume” into the template search bar inside Docs. Word Online has a similar gallery under New, and Zoho Writer has its own resume category too. My rule with any of these: pick the plainest one on offer, not the most decorative one. If two templates are sitting side by side and one has a sidebar with an icon next to “Phone” and the other just lists it in a line of text, take the second one every time.
If you want a wider curated list of templates that are worth your time rather than ones that just look nice in a thumbnail, I’ve put together a page on free resume templates worth downloading in 2026 with notes on which ones parse cleanly and which ones I’d avoid.
A specific format worth knowing about
If you want a layout with a proven track record rather than something you’ve invented on the spot, the Harvard resume format is one I recommend constantly to career changers and graduates, because it’s plain, chronological, and built for exactly the kind of scanning both humans and software do quickly. I’ve written the whole thing out step by step, including section order and spacing, in how to format a resume using the Harvard resume style, and it’s easy to rebuild inside Google Docs in under an hour using nothing but headings, bold text, and bullet points.
Saving, exporting, and naming your file
Once the content’s done:
- In Google Docs, go to File, then Download, then PDF Document. Never submit a live Google Docs link as your resume, some recruiters won’t open it and some companies block external links entirely for security reasons.
- Name the file with your actual name and the word “resume” or “CV”, for example “Jane-Carter-Resume.pdf”, never “Document1.pdf” or “Final version 3 (2).pdf”. Recruiters open dozens of these a day and a clear file name is a small courtesy that stands out.
- Open the PDF after exporting and check page breaks haven’t split a job entry awkwardly across two pages. This happens more than people expect and it’s a five second fix.
What to do once the resume itself is solid
A resume rarely travels alone. If you’re applying anywhere that expects a cover letter or a portfolio front page, it’s worth thinking about presentation at that stage, not before, and I’ve covered that separately in how to design a resume cover page that gets noticed, which is aimed at people submitting directly to a person rather than through an online form.
And if you’re self employed or freelance rather than applying for a permanent job, the same free document tools are worth knowing for the paperwork that follows once you land the work, including client agreements, which I’ve written about in how to use online contract templates to speed up client agreements.
The last thing I’d say
None of this needs to take more than two hours from a blank Google Doc to a finished, exported PDF, and I’ve timed myself doing it with clients enough times to know that’s a realistic number, not a marketing one. The tool is free, the templates are free, and the only real cost is the time it takes to write honest, specific bullet points instead of vague ones. Spend your effort there. The formatting will take care of itself if you keep it plain.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Docs good enough for a professional resume?
Yes. Google Docs is used by recruiters and hiring managers themselves, its plain templates parse cleanly through applicant tracking systems, and exporting to PDF gives you a document that looks identical on any device, which is exactly what a professional resume needs.
Do I need Canva or a paid resume builder instead of a free document tool?
No. Paid resume builders mostly add decorative templates, and decorative templates are often the exact thing that gets mangled by an ATS. A plain layout built in a free tool like Google Docs or Word Online will usually perform better in an actual application than a paid design tool’s fancier version.
Should my resume be one page or two?
One page if you have under 10 years of relevant experience, two pages if you have more. Anything longer than two pages tends to get skimmed rather than read, regardless of how strong the content is.
What file format should I submit, PDF or a live document link?
Always export and submit a PDF. A live Google Docs or Word Online link can be blocked by company firewalls, edited accidentally, or simply not opened at all by a recruiter working through dozens of applications.
Further reading
Related reading: Free COVID Reopening Signs And 4 Other Safe Ways To Resume Business and The AI Brand Voice Document: How to Stop Every AI Tool Sounding Like Everyone Else’s.
This builds on my main productivity guide, my main guide on the topic.
