Why I Ditched DOCX for HTML Resumes (and How AI Made It Easier)

Description and use

The author replaced a years-long DOCX CV workflow with an HTML/CSS-based approach stored in Git, enabling clean version history and easy PDF export; AI coding agents further lowered the barrier to customizing the CV without deep CSS knowledge.

Problem

Maintaining a CV in DOCX causes repeated formatting issues, version control problems, and difficulty tracking changes over time.

Outcome

The author replaced a years-long DOCX CV workflow with an HTML/CSS-based approach stored in Git, enabling clean version history and easy PDF export; AI coding agents further lowered the barrier to customizing the CV without deep CSS knowledge.

Workflow

• Open the html-cv-kit repository on GitHub (TrinkieYinkie/html-cv-kit).
• Choose a template (single-file or structured project).
• Download the selected template files.
• Open the HTML file in a browser to preview the CV.
• Edit content manually or use an AI coding agent to make changes while preserving design consistency.
• Export the finished CV to PDF using the browser's print functionality, checking print preview, paper size, margins, and background graphics first.

Evidence

Do you still have your CV in DOCX? Then you might be wasting your time.

Source

All the text blocks were trying to move, slide onto another page, or break the design completely.

Source

Every time I made changes, I wanted to keep the previous version. So my folders started something like this: Alisa_Petrova_CV_2022.docx Alisa_Petrova_CV_2022_final.docx Alisa_Petrova_CV_2022_revised.docx Alisa_Petrova_CV_2022_final_FINAL.docx

Source

HTML and CSS are plain text files, which means you can store them in Git and track every change.

Source

Now you don't necessarily need to understand how HTML and CSS work. Instead of learning how to change the background of your resume, you can simply ask an AI coding agent to do it.

Source

I created html-cv-kit, an open-source repository with examples and templates you can use for your own CV. GitHub: TrinkieYinkie/html-cv-kit

Source

Just open the HTML file in your browser and export it as a PDF. That's it. A beautiful CV, ready to send to a recruiter.

Source

One small tip: when exporting, check the print preview, paper size, margins, and background graphics. Browser print settings can affect the final layout.

Source