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Use Markdown when you want the content of your resume in a portable plain-text format. Markdown keeps headings, lists, links, bold text, and italic text, but it does not try to preserve the visual template, page layout, colors, or spacing from the PDF. Use PDF when you are submitting the finished resume. Use Markdown when you want to reuse, review, transform, or store the resume content.

Export Markdown

1

Open your resume

Go to the dashboard and open the resume you want to export.
2

Open Download

Click Download in the builder header, or open the Export section in the right sidebar and click Download.
3

Choose Resume or Cover letter

Select Resume to export the resume content. Select Cover letter if you want a Markdown copy of the cover letter instead.
4

Download Markdown

In the Markdown row, click Download. Your browser saves a .md file.
Download dialog showing PDF, DOCX, Markdown, and JSON export options for a resume

Download dialog with the Markdown export option

Use cases

Markdown export is useful when you need readable resume content outside the PDF.

Example Markdown

A shortened export of the built-in sample resume looks like this:

What Markdown includes

Markdown export includes the visible resume or cover-letter content for the selected tab. It keeps the document structure, section headings, item headings, rich-text paragraphs, lists, links, bold text, and italic text. Markdown export does not include visual-only choices such as template design, page size, column layout, colors, icon styling, spacing, or PDF page breaks.
If you are sharing the file with an AI assistant, include the job description in the same prompt and ask for changes as Markdown. That makes the result easy to compare before you update the resume in Reactive Resume.

When not to use Markdown

Do not use Markdown as the final file for most job applications. Applicant portals and recruiters usually expect a PDF or DOCX file. Export Markdown when you need a working copy of the content, then export PDF when you are ready to submit.