Writing a Cover Letter in Google Docs

Docs is a good place to write a cover letter and a bad place to send one from. The distinction matters more here than it does for a resume.

What Docs is good at here

Version history. Every edit retained, any earlier state restorable. Useful when you decide last week’s opening was better.

Sharing for feedback. Getting comments in context from someone who knows the industry is genuinely easier than emailing files. This is the strongest argument for drafting letters here.

Consistent rendering. Fewer font substitution surprises than a Word file, since the document renders in the browser.

Availability. Works on any machine you can sign into, which matters when you are applying from wherever you happen to be.

The setup

Ten minutes, once.

Page setup. One inch margins all round, letter size.

Three styles. Docs lets you update a named style to match the current selection, then apply it throughout. Set up your name, your contact line and a body style at 11 or 12 point with space after paragraphs rather than empty lines. Then save them as your default styles so future documents inherit them.

Block format. Everything left aligned, no indents, a clear gap between paragraphs. Purdue’s cover letter guidance follows the same conventions, and there is nothing to gain from deviating.

Turn off autocorrect features you do not want, particularly automatic capitalisation and link detection, which turns email addresses into blue underlined text that looks careless in print.

Match your resume. Same font, same header block. If your resume is in Docs too, copy the header rather than retyping it.

Then make it a template by keeping one master document and using the make-a-copy option for each application.

Never send the link

Four reasons, and any one of them is sufficient.

It can fail. Sharing settings, an organisation policy or a sign-in prompt can put a wall between a recruiter and your letter. They will not troubleshoot it.

It exposes your history. Anyone with access can open version history and read every draft, including the paragraph about a different employer.

It cannot be uploaded. Application forms want a file. A link is not a file.

You can keep editing it. Which sounds like a feature and means the document someone assessed on Tuesday is not the document they see on Thursday. That is a bad position to be in if anything is queried.

Download the PDF and attach it. Every time.

The export

Use File then Download, choosing a file type, which is the route Google documents for creating, viewing or downloading a file.

Take the PDF, not an image format. A flattened file has no selectable text, which means a screen reader cannot read it, the point Section508.gov makes about accessible PDFs, and it means the file cannot be searched by anyone filing it.

Then open the download and read it. Docs and its PDF export usually agree, and the check costs ten seconds.

Name the file plainly: CoverLetter-Wieczorek-Kestrel.pdf.

Two Docs-specific traps

Resolved comments. Resolving a comment hides it, it does not delete it. They do not appear in a PDF export, so this is safe when you download. It is not safe if you share the document itself, where anyone with access can reopen the comment history. If you shared a draft for feedback, delete the comments rather than resolving them.

Unaccepted suggestions. If a reviewer worked in suggesting mode, their suggestions sit in the document until accepted or rejected. Exporting with suggestions pending can produce a PDF containing text you had decided against, or missing text you meant to keep. Clear them all before downloading.

Both of these have the same root: Docs is built for collaboration, and a job application is not a collaborative document once it leaves you.

Tailoring at volume

The Docs workflow for many applications.

Keep one master letter document with the company, role and contact as bracketed placeholders. Keep a second document holding your library of evidence paragraphs, grouped by theme rather than by employer.

For each application: make a copy of the master, name it for the employer, paste the relevant paragraph from the library as plain text, write the opening, replace the placeholders, then search the document for [ before exporting.

That last search is the single habit that prevents sending a letter naming the wrong company. The fuller version of the system is in Word cover letter tips and it transfers directly.

Related

For the Word comparison, see the Microsoft Word cover letter guide. For content, see the cover letter outline guide and the best cover letter examples. For the matching resume, see the Google Docs resume guide.

Browse the Google Docs templates or use the cover letter generator, free at Kazifi.