Reasons to create an ASCII (text only) version of your resume
An ASCII résumé is a plain text presentation of your document. It does not include graphics, rule lines, or bullets and it's far less "sexy" than your Word document, but many recruiters and hiring managers prefer plain text documents. Imagine that you are a recruiter who has posted an open position on a big job board. You may receive several hundred resumes for that open job. The time spent opening all those Word documents could be overwhelming. It's much more efficient to review multiple resumes when they are posted within the body of the email than it is to view as an attachment. In addition, the risk of opening an attachment that contains a virus is eliminated when the text only version is copied and pasted into the body of the email. Even if the employer requests that the resume be sent as an attachment, it is still recommended that you include a copy and paste version so the reader can quickly preview your qualifications before opening up the attachment.