We Measured 27 Free CV Templates Against ATS Layout Advice (2026)

Of the 27 free resume templates on Microsoft Create's resume page, 24 (89%) put text in table rows with content side by side, the kind of layout Jobscan and Roche both tell applicants to avoid. Only 2 of the 27 avoid tables, text boxes, columns, pictures and header text altogether, and both have "ATS" in their name.

We measured the files, not any employer's software. That limit matters, and it gets its own section below. What the files do show is how much of a typical free template is built from structures that ATS vendors and employers warn about.

Disclosure: we build NextCV, which includes a free CV checker. We have an interest in people caring about CV structure. We chose the templates before measuring anything: every resume template on the page that linked to a Word file, with no selection by us. Every number below comes from one results file, and the checks are listed so you can repeat them.

How we ran the study

1. The templates. On 3 November 2026 we opened Microsoft Create's resume and cover letter templates page and took every resume template on it that offered a direct Word download. That is 27 files. The page listed 12 cover letters, which we left out. We did not create an account, log in or pay for anything. We downloaded plain DOCX files and did not edit them.
2. The measurements. A script reads each file's XML and counts: tables, table rows with two or more non-empty cells, text boxes, multi-column sections, header and footer text, images and shapes, section labels, fonts, and the page count Word saved in the file. Each text box is counted once, because Word stores a second copy of every box for older software.
3. The sources. For each structure we say which published guidance warns about it. We read two pages on 3 November 2026: Jobscan's "The Anatomy of an ATS Friendly Resume Format" and Roche's Resume Parsing FAQ. Where neither page backs a check, we mark it as our own heuristic.
4. The checker. We extracted each file's text the same way NextCV's upload does, then scored it with the same code as the free CV checker.

What the two sources say, in their words:

• Jobscan: "Avoid multi-column layouts, tables, and text boxes, as the ATS can scramble the information."
• Jobscan: "Don’t put critical information (like your name, email, or phone number) in the document’s header or footer."
• Jobscan: "Most ATS software cannot “read” information contained within images, graphics, skill bars, or charts."
• Jobscan: "Use clear, traditional titles for each section."
• Roche lists "Tables" and "Text boxes" among elements to avoid, warns that some systems "will read columns straight across rather than reading column one top to bottom", and says "Information in the header and footer sometimes gets dropped by the ATS completely."

Two of our measures go beyond those pages. Counting table rows with side-by-side content applies Roche's read-across warning to tables; the pages do not give that ratio. The share of words inside those rows is our own heuristic too.

The results

Three notes on reading that table. A "side-by-side" row is any table row with two or more non-empty cells, so a row that only pairs a date with a job title counts; the share-of-words rows separate that from whole-page sidebar layouts. "Draws shapes" includes lines, bars and colour blocks, and we did not measure whether a shape contains text. Fonts are in the results file but not in the table: Jobscan names five example fonts (Arial, Calibri, Garamond, Georgia, Times New Roman) as examples rather than a complete list, so counting fonts outside them proves little. 24 of the 27 used at least one other font, and the median template used two.

The seven templates with "ATS" in the title

Microsoft names seven of the 27 templates with the word ATS. We compared them with the other 20.

The labelled group is better on every count, and we take that at face value. It is also not clean. Four of the seven still use side-by-side table rows. Two of them, "Extended ATS healthcare resume" and "ATS healthcare resume", keep 98% and 96% of their words inside a table row with side-by-side content. The label is Microsoft's, and we cannot say what it is based on.

All 27 templates

Seven findings you can quote

1. 24 of 27 free templates (89%) have at least one table row with content side by side.
2. 18 of 27 (67%) keep more than half of their words inside such rows, and 13 (48%) keep 90% or more there.
3. Only 2 of 27 (7%) are free of tables, text boxes, columns, pictures and header text, and both have "ATS" in their name.
4. Of the 7 templates with "ATS" in the title, 4 still use side-by-side table rows, and 2 of those hold 96% or more of their words in them.
5. None of the 27 puts contact details in the header or footer, and none uses a text box with text or a multi-column section; tables are the layout in this sample.
6. 8 of 27 (30%) have no plain Skills-style section label, and 2 have no Work Experience-style label.
7. 11 of 27 (41%) are saved as two or more pages, up to a 7-page template, and 8 of 27 (30%) include a picture.

The fifth finding runs against a common claim, so it deserves a second look. Advice about text boxes and headers is everywhere, and our sample contained none of the former and no contact details in the latter. We think that reflects how Microsoft builds these files, not that the advice is wrong. A template from a design tool, or one you assemble yourself, may use boxes and headers freely.

What the NextCV checker made of them

We ran every file's extracted text through the free checker, using the same text extraction as the upload on that page. Results: 27 of 27 had enough text to score, scores ranged from 66 to 91 with a median of 79, 12 scored 80 or more, and none scored below 60. Four templates had a critical finding, and in all four it was a missing phone number. One of them, "Clean elegant resume", also had no Experience, Education or Skills section found in the text.

Treat those scores with care. The templates hold placeholder text: sample names, dates written as "20XX", example.com emails and short sample lines. That is why 25 of 27 drew a missing-dates warning and 12 drew a too-short warning, and why none registered bullets. The scores describe the sample text as shipped. They say nothing about a real CV written in the template.

The more useful result is about the checker. It flagged a possible table layout in only 3 of 27 templates. Just one of the three actually has table rows with side-by-side content, and the other two are the single-flow templates with no tables at all. The checker works on extracted text, so it can miss layout problems that live in the file's structure. For that, look at the file itself, as this study did. We would rather say so here than let a high score imply more than it knows.

What to do instead

• Start from a template with no tables. In this sample, the two single-flow templates were the only ones with no tables at all. If a template uses a table for its sidebar, ask whether you need the sidebar.
• Put your contact details in the body of the page. Jobscan advises it, and Roche says header text can be dropped completely. Keeping them on the page also makes them easy to see in a plain-text paste.
• Use plain section names. Work Experience, Education and Skills. If your template calls the skills block something else, rename it. Jobscan and Roche both say conventional labels help the system sort your information.
• Keep pictures and decorative shapes to a minimum. Most ATS software cannot read information inside images or graphics, and anything that matters should also exist as text.
• Look at the plain text. Paste your CV into a text editor. If the order is jumbled or lines are missing, a parser may see the same thing. Then run the file through the free CV checker for the structural basics.
• Watch the page count. Length is a separate question from parsing, and we found no source tying it to ATS trouble. We mention it only because 11 of the 27 templates ship at two or more pages.

Limitations

• We did not test a real ATS. Employers run different systems with different settings. A layout that Jobscan or Roche warns about may parse fine in a given system, and a clean file can still fail in another. Nothing here is a pass or fail verdict on any template.
• One source of templates. All 27 are from Microsoft Create's page as it stood on 3 November 2026. We tried other resume sites. Several returned access-denied errors to automated requests and one rate-limited us, so we did not include them. These templates are not a sample of every free template on the web, and Microsoft's files may differ from those on resume-site download pages.
• Structure only. We counted what is in the files. We did not render them, and page counts are the values Word saved in each file.
• Sources are two pages. Jobscan and Roche are one commercial and one employer guide. Neither is a parser vendor's documentation, and both speak in terms such as "can" and "some systems", which is why we claim no more than they do.
• Heuristics are labelled. The side-by-side row count, the share of words in those rows, and the section-label lists are ours. The label lists are short and a template that names a section in an unusual way counts as missing it.
• Placeholder text. The checker scores describe sample text, not a working CV.

The two templates with no tables, text boxes, columns, pictures or header text were "ATS office manager resume" and "ATS bold classic resume". Each is a single flow of text saved as two pages. We did not rank templates for safety, and we have no way to say they would pass any employer's system.