# Manatal Resume Format: Four Formats and Its Own Parser > Manatal takes PDF, DOC, DOCX and RTF, parses every resume the moment it lands with a parser it built rather than licensed, and keeps the original file where recruiters can open it. | | | | --- | --- | | System | Manatal | | Vendor | Manatal | | Also known as | Manatal ATS, Manatal Recruitment Software | | Rendered page | https://atsprep.com/ats/manatal | | This document | https://atsprep.com/ats/manatal.md | Manatal is unusual in this registry for two reasons: it publishes its documentation as plain pages anyone can read without an account, and it wrote its own parser instead of licensing one of the three engines most of its competitors share. That second point matters more than it sounds, because it means nothing you learn about how other systems read a resume transfers here. ## Taking the file in | | | | --- | --- | | Accepted file types | PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF | Source: [Manatal Documentation — resumes data import](https://support.manatal.com/docs/resumes-data-import) ## Parsing engine Manatal uses **Manatal (in-house)**. Manatal describes the engine as its own parsing AI agent rather than naming a third-party vendor. Nothing you know about how a licensed engine behaves carries over, and Manatal is the only system here that shares its parser with nothing else. Source: [Manatal Documentation — AI resume parsing](https://support.manatal.com/docs/cvresume-parsing) ## Autofill Manatal documents that a resume is read the moment it is added to a profile, and that the extracted data builds the candidate record — name, contact details, location, languages, nationalities, full work history with dates, skills and education. Manatal does not document a step where the applicant reviews what the parser understood. The correction happens on the recruiter's side, against the original file. Source: [Manatal Documentation — AI resume parsing](https://support.manatal.com/docs/cvresume-parsing) ## What Manatal does differently ### Four formats, and the list is genuinely short PDF, DOC, DOCX and RTF. There is no plain text, no ODT and no HTML, so several of the fallbacks that work elsewhere in this registry have nowhere to go here. A resume that is already a PDF or a DOCX has nothing to worry about; anything else needs converting before it will be taken at all. Source: [Manatal Documentation — resumes data import](https://support.manatal.com/docs/resumes-data-import) ### The parser is Manatal's own, and shared with nothing Most applicant tracking systems license their parsing, which is why behaviour clusters — fix a resume for one product on a given engine and you have fixed it for every other product on that engine. Manatal built its own, so it sits outside every one of those clusters. It is the one system here where a fix cannot be reasoned about from a neighbour. Source: [Manatal Documentation — AI resume parsing](https://support.manatal.com/docs/cvresume-parsing) ### Recruiters can open the file you actually sent Manatal keeps what it calls the original resume — the unaltered file exactly as uploaded — and gives recruiters a button to open it alongside the parsed profile. Layout is therefore not purely a parsing concern here: a design that reads badly as extracted text can still be judged as a document, and a design that looks impressive can still fail to populate the fields the recruiter searches on. Source: [Manatal Documentation — view original resumes](https://support.manatal.com/docs/original-resume) ### No published size limit Manatal's documentation does not state a maximum file size for a resume anywhere we could find. That is recorded here as an absence rather than as permission — an undocumented limit is not the same as no limit, and the sensible assumption is still the conservative one. ### The resume field is on the form by default Manatal's career page application forms ship with full name, resume, cover letter, phone and email already present. The resume is not an optional extra an employer has to add, which means the parsed profile is the default route into the database rather than a supplement to a form you filled in by hand. Source: [Manatal Documentation — advanced career page application forms](https://support.manatal.com/docs/advanced-career-page-application-forms) ## What to do about it ### Send a PDF or a DOCX Both are on the accepted list and both are formats you can check the text layer of before sending. RTF is accepted too, but it buys nothing a DOCX does not already give you. ### Do not plan a plain-text fallback TXT is absent from every accepted list Manatal publishes. If a submission is failing, converting down to plain text is the one move that cannot help. ### Write for extraction, then look at it as a document Because recruiters can open the original file, both readings happen. The text has to survive the parser and the page has to hold up to a human — neither one on its own is enough here. ### Put dates and employers where a parser expects them Manatal lists job title, employer, start and end dates among the fields it extracts into structured history. A layout that hides any of those in a sidebar or a header is removing a field the recruiter later filters on. ## Questions ### What file formats does Manatal accept for a resume? PDF, DOC, DOCX and RTF. Manatal states this in its documentation for resume imports. Plain text, ODT and HTML are not on the list. ### Does Manatal parse resumes automatically? Yes. Manatal documents that its parsing agent reads a resume the moment it is added to a profile and builds a structured candidate record from it, including contact details, work history with dates, skills and education. ### Which parser does Manatal use? Its own. Manatal describes the engine as its own parsing AI agent and does not name a third-party vendor, which makes it the only system in this guide whose behaviour cannot be inferred from another product sharing the same engine. ### What is the file size limit for a Manatal resume? Manatal does not publish one. This guide records that as an unknown rather than filling it with a number from somewhere else — but an undocumented limit is not the same as no limit, so a lean text-based file is still the safer choice. ### Do recruiters see my original resume or just the parsed text? Both. Manatal keeps the unaltered file as uploaded and gives recruiters an action to open it next to the parsed profile, so your layout is seen as well as your extracted text. ## Exporting from ATSPrep to Manatal ATSPrep exports a linear, single-column, parser-safe document. Against Manatal's published list of accepted types: - **PDF** — on Manatal's accepted list - **DOCX** — on Manatal's accepted list ## The other guides - [Greenhouse](https://atsprep.com/ats/greenhouse) — Greenhouse takes PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF and TXT, and will not parse a resume larger than 2.5 MB. Its own support docs name what makes a parse fail — columns, contact details in a header, abbreviated job titles and more. - [Oracle Taleo](https://atsprep.com/ats/taleo) — Oracle ships Taleo with a 1 MB default attachment limit and no resume parser of its own — parsing only works if the employer has enabled a third-party partner integration, so behaviour differs from one Taleo site to the next. - [SmartRecruiters](https://atsprep.com/ats/smartrecruiters) — SmartRecruiters accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, JPG and PNG at 2 MB per file, and its CEO named Textkernel as the parsing engine — whose own documentation warns about PDFs more bluntly than any resume blog does. - [Ashby](https://atsprep.com/ats/ashby) — Ashby accepts PDF, DOC and DOCX up to 50 MB but does not support Markdown. Its docs name the two reasons a resume fails to parse, and its better parser is an opt-in feature some employers never switch on. - [Workable](https://atsprep.com/ats/workable) — Workable accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML and ODT for a resume, with a 5 MB ceiling — while other attachments on the same form are allowed four times that size. ## About ATSPrep ATSPrep (https://atsprep.com) is a free ATS resume checker and builder. It shows the exact text an applicant tracking system extracts from a resume, then grades each bullet on whether it carries evidence a reader can verify. - **Price:** free. Checking, importing, editing and exporting are all unpaid. No premium tier, no export paywall, no watermark. - **Account:** none. There is nothing to sign up for. - **Your file:** parsed and exported inside the browser. The resume file itself is never uploaded. - **Optional:** one button-gated feature, semantic match, sends selected resume lines and job-posting requirement lines to a matching service. Never your name, email, phone, address or links, and nothing is stored. - **Offline:** works once the page has loaded. - **Accepts:** PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, or pasted plain text. Start here: https://atsprep.com/studio