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Reactive Resume can export your resume, and your cover letter separately when you have one, in four formats.

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Open the download dialog

Every export runs from the same Download dialog. You can open it two ways.
1

Open your resume in the builder

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

Click Download

Select the Download button in the top-right of the builder header, next to the sidebar toggle. You can also open the same dialog from the Export section of the right sidebar.
3

Pick what to export

At the top of the dialog, use the tabs to choose Resume or Cover letter. The Cover letter tab is only available when your resume contains a visible cover letter section.
4

Choose a format

Select Download on the format you want. The dialog closes and your browser saves the file using the resume name as the filename.
While an export is running, the trigger button and format buttons show a spinner and stay disabled until the file is ready.

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Export the resume and cover letter separately

If your resume includes a cover letter section, the download dialog treats the resume and cover letter as two distinct documents.
  • For PDF, DOCX, and Markdown, the Resume tab exports only your resume content and excludes cover letter sections. Its JSON export retains embedded cover-letter custom sections; independent cover letters remain separate dashboard exports.
  • The Cover letter tab exports only visible cover letter sections, rendered full width on their own page.
You do not need to reorder pages or hide sections by hand to produce a resume-only or cover-letter-only PDF. Select the tab that matches what you want, then pick a format.
The Cover letter tab is disabled when the resume has no cover letter section, or when every cover letter section or item is hidden.

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Export as PDF

Choose PDF when you need a file that preserves your resume layout. Use PDF for:
  • uploading to job applications;
  • emailing recruiters or hiring managers;
  • printing from your browser or a print service;
  • sharing a finished copy outside Reactive Resume.
The PDF is generated from your current resume data, template, typography, design, layout, and page settings.

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Export as DOCX

Choose DOCX when you want to continue editing your resume or cover letter in a word processor. Use DOCX for:
  • making final manual edits in Microsoft Word;
  • collaborating with someone who prefers Word or Google Docs;
  • submitting to a system that requires a Word document.
DOCX exports are useful for editing, but the visual layout may not match the PDF exactly. Use PDF when exact visual fidelity matters.

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Export as Markdown

Choose Markdown when you want a plain-text version of your resume or cover letter that is easy to edit anywhere and easy to feed into AI tools. Use Markdown for:
  • pasting into an AI assistant to review, rewrite, or tailor content;
  • quick edits in any text editor without formatting overhead;
  • storing a lightweight, diff-friendly copy in version control.
Section headings, lists, links, and rich-text formatting from the builder are preserved as standard Markdown. For examples and common workflows, see Exporting a resume to Markdown.

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Export as JSON

Choose JSON when you want a structured backup of your resume. The JSON export includes your full resume content and settings, including any cover letter sections embedded in that resume. You can import it later from the dashboard to restore the resume or create another version. JSON is also useful when working with AI assistants that understand structured data. Export JSON, ask an assistant to review or edit the fields, then import the revised JSON as a new resume.
JSON export in the download dialog is only available on the Resume tab. To export an independent letter as JSON, open it from Cover Letters on the dashboard and select Export JSON.
Review AI-generated changes before importing or using them. AI assistants can make mistakes or add details that do not reflect your experience.

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Keep JSON backups in a local Git repository

Git can keep owner-controlled versions of your exported resume and cover letter without changing Reactive Resume or connecting it to a Git provider. This workflow is manual and local only: Reactive Resume does not commit, synchronize, or upload the files for you.

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Choose the right exports

Reactive Resume provides three different JSON shapes: Use the single-resume and independent-cover-letter exports for the Git workflow below. An account archive is an additional portability backup, not a replacement for those files. Because its exportedAt timestamp changes on every export, do not expect otherwise unchanged account archives to be byte-for-byte identical.

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Create the local backup

  1. Create a folder outside your Reactive Resume source checkout.
  2. Export the resume and each independent cover letter you want to keep.
  3. Give the files stable, descriptive names. The example below uses resume.json and cover-letter.json; replace each file with its latest export instead of changing its name.
  4. From that folder, initialize Git and inspect exactly what you are about to commit:
After the first commit, replace the JSON files with fresh exports and inspect the visible changes before committing again:
Stable filenames and the exports’ two-space indentation make field changes easier to review. Repeat the add, diff, and commit steps only after the changes look correct.
Resume JSON, cover-letter JSON, and especially an account archive can contain private data such as contact details, application text, profile metadata, and email address. A local Git repository does not publish anything. Inspect every diff and decide separately whether to publish it; if you use a remote, make it private and control who can access it.
JSON exports store image URLs, not offline copies of image files. An imported backup can show an image only while the referenced storage remains available and accessible.

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Recover an earlier resume without replacing the current one

Choose the committed revision of resume.json that you want to recover. List commits that changed the file, then inspect the selected revision from the backup folder. Choose a fresh, unused output filename; the example assumes recovered-resume.json does not already exist:
On the Reactive Resume dashboard, select Import an existing resume, choose recovered-resume.json, and complete the import. Import creates a new resume, so the current resume remains available for comparison or further editing. Only a single-resume JSON export works for this recovery flow. Import independent cover letters through the cover-letter library. Restoring an account archive wholesale is outside this workflow. Git backups complement Reactive Resume’s rolling snapshots; they do not replace or synchronize with undo and version history.

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Printing your resume

To print, export a PDF and print it from your PDF viewer or browser. This gives you the same layout that recruiters see when you send them the file.

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Public resume downloads

If your resume is public, visitors can download a PDF from the public resume page. You can enable public access in the builder’s Sharing section. For the full public sharing workflow, see Sharing your resume publicly.