How to import an existing CV from a PDF

You do not have to retype a CV to restyle it. CV Editor can open the PDF you already have and turn it back into editable fields. This guide explains what the importer looks for, what it cannot recover, and how to tidy up afterwards.

The short version

1. If there is already a CV in the editor that you want to keep, press Save data first. Importing replaces the CV on screen.
2. Press Import PDF, or drag the PDF anywhere onto the editor.
3. Read down the form on the left and compare it with your original. Fix anything that landed in the wrong place.
4. Pick a design, or keep the one the importer derived from your file.

The file is read by your browser. It is not uploaded, and nothing in it is sent anywhere.

What kind of PDF works

The importer reads the text stored inside a PDF, along with where each piece of text sits on the page, how large it is and what colour it is. That means the PDF has to contain real text.

A quick test: open the PDF and try to select a sentence with your mouse. If you can highlight individual words, it contains text. If the whole page selects as one block, or nothing selects at all, it is an image. In that case the editor reports that the file looks like a scanned PDF. You can run it through an OCR tool first, or start from the blank template and paste your text in section by section.

How the importer works out what is what

A PDF does not record that a line is a job title or a heading. It only records characters and positions. The importer rebuilds the structure from the same visual cues a person uses:

• Columns. It looks at where lines start across the page. If a group of lines consistently starts in a separate narrow column, on either the left or the right, that becomes the sidebar, and the rest becomes the main column. Otherwise the CV is treated as a single column.
• Your name. The largest text in the sidebar, or in a single-column CV the largest text in the document.
• Title and contact lines. In a sidebar layout, the capitalised lines under your name become title lines and the lines after them become contact details. Phone numbers, email addresses and links are recognised so they can be made clickable in the new PDF.
• Section headings. Lines written entirely in capitals at heading size, such as EXPERIENCE or EDUCATION.
• Roles. Under a heading that mentions experience, employment, history, career, projects, education or volunteering, a line with a date or date range set apart at the right-hand edge - "Jan 2020 - Jul 2022", "2019 to present", "03/2018 - 11/2019" - is read as the start of a role. The employer comes from that line, and the job title from the line beneath it when that line is larger or in the accent colour.
• Bullet points and paragraphs. Lines that wrap are joined back into one sentence, using indentation and end-of-sentence punctuation to tell where one point stops and the next begins.
• Achievements. A bulleted list under a heading such as "Key achievements", or a run of bullets at the end of a role, becomes that role's achievements list.
• Page furniture. Footers such as "Page 1 of 2" are dropped rather than imported as content.

What carries across, and what does not

Because the look is derived from your file, no built-in design is selected after an import. The editor is showing an approximation of what you had. You can keep it, adjust it, or choose one of the nine templates. Any designs you have saved yourself are kept through an import.

What to check afterwards

Every CV is laid out differently, and the importer is making educated guesses. Give the result two minutes before you rely on it:

• Count the roles. The message shown after an import tells you how many sidebar sections and roles were found. If the number of roles is lower than you expect, two have probably been merged - usually because one of them had its dates in an unusual format, or somewhere other than the right-hand edge of the line.
• Check each role's employer, title and dates. If your original put the job title first and the employer second, they may have swapped. Retype them in the right fields.
• Check the header of a single-column CV. When there is no sidebar, the importer finds your name but leaves the lines around it - job title, phone, email - as ordinary text at the top of the first section. Cut them from there and paste them into the title and contact fields in the header group.
• Check that every section was found. Headings in capitals are recognised; headings in ordinary title case ("Work Experience") are not, and their content is appended to the section above. See the tip below.
• Look for stray lines. A line the importer could not place usually ends up as an extra paragraph at the end of a role or section. Drag it by its handle to where it belongs, or delete it.
• Check long sidebar items. A skill that wrapped on to two lines may have been split into two items, or two short items joined into one.
• Read the contact lines. Make sure the phone, email and link lines each have the right type, so they are clickable when you export.
• Check the photo. If the wrong image was picked up - a logo, for instance - remove it in the header group and choose the right one.

Everything the importer read is somewhere in the form; it does not silently throw sentences away. Fixing a misplaced line by dragging it is nearly always quicker than retyping the section.

Getting a cleaner import

• Go back to the source document if you still have it. A PDF saved directly from a word processor has cleaner text than one that has been printed, scanned and saved again.
• Use "Save as PDF" or "Download as PDF", not a print-to-image option. Some print dialogs flatten the page into a picture.
• Simplify before exporting. If your current CV keeps its skills in a table or its contact details inside a text box, moving them into ordinary lines first gives the importer much more to work with.
• Put section headings in capitals. If you can edit the original, changing "Work Experience" to "WORK EXPERIENCE" before you export is the single most useful thing you can do. It is how the importer tells a heading from a short line of text.
• Keep dates on the same line as the employer, aligned to the right margin. That is the pattern the importer recognises as the start of a role. Dates on a line of their own, or tucked in brackets straight after the employer's name, are read as ordinary text.

Why import at all?

Three common reasons. Your CV was made years ago in a template you no longer have. It was made in a builder that now wants payment to let you edit it. Or it simply looks dated, and you want the same content in a cleaner layout. In each case the content is the valuable part, and it is locked inside a PDF. Importing gets it back into a form you can edit, restyle and export again, as often as you like.