Job hunting electronically requires finesse. Keeping your cover letter with your resume, in a single document, lessens the chance of losing that impressive letter, and it's easier for your potential employer to print. This is one way to optimize your time and, maybe, impress your potential employer.

Planning your cover letter and resume

First, if you need help getting started on your resume or cover letter, a great source for samples is the Templates on Microsoft Office Online Web site, which provides preformatted resumes and cover letters that you can download and customize.

On the Office Templates Web site, you can find resumes for specific situations, such as college graduate, advanced degree, and executive resumes — as well as job-specific resumes, such as computer technician, administrative assistant, or chef. Then, you can browse the cover letters for specific situations and the job-specific letters for an example that best suits your resume.

Creating sections for a cover letter and resume

To keep your cover letter and your resume together, you can create them in the same document and use a separate section, with different information and formatting, for each.

 Note   You can use the same technique to create title pages, tables of contents, and other pages where you want different margins and headers and footers.

Step 1: Insert a section break

1. Click the place in your document where you want to insert a section break for your cover letter.
2. On the Insert menu, click Break.
3. Under Section break types, click Next page.

   You can click the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar to display the section breaks. This makes it easier both to see where a section begins and to delete the section break.

Cover letter header

Cover letter footer

Resume header

Section break

Step 2: Make the header and footer different from the previous section

1. Click the first page of the resume (section 2).
2. On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
3. Click anywhere in the header, and then click the Link to Previous button on the Header and Footer toolbar.

    Note   In Word 2002, click the Same as Previous button on the Header and Footer toolbar.

   Same as Previous should disappear from the Header area.

4. Repeat step 3 for the footer.

Once you set up separate sections, you can vary the layout from one page to the next and set different margins, page numbers, and other page formatting for the letter and the resume. You can even apply different page settings on the same page if you divide the page into sections. When you set the margins and other page format settings, be sure you select the appropriate option (This section, This point forward, or Whole document) in the Apply to box in the Page Setup dialog box.

Cover letter header

Cover letter footer

Resume header

Resume footer

In this illustration, the cover letter uses a standard format for contact and other information (such as your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number) in the header and footer. The header and footer on the first page of the resume are blank. The second page of the resume includes the name of the applicant and the position sought in the header and the page number in the footer. Page 2 of the resume is actually the third page in the document.