Question for computer savvy

Nurses Career Support

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

I scanned my transcript and letters of recommendation into the computer and saved them as .pdf's. When I try to upload them during the online application process, I get an error message that I exceeded the memory limit. Is there another way I can save them? I don't think saving as a document would work because the computer often doesn't read it correctly.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

This is an issue with most online application software. Very frustrating.

Try saving the document as a 'rich text' (.rtf) or 'plain text' (.txt) file. Pdf documents are big because there is a lot of embedded formatting/code in them. The plain text option will be the smallest file, but this removes all formatting such as bold, underline, italics, etc. So you may need to re-do your document to make it appear nice by adjusting margins or putting an extra line between paragraphs, etc.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

whoops - did not realize that you scanned the documents. Unless you used an OCR (optical character recognition) software to convert the scanned docs into editable text files, you will be unable to save them as .txt or .rtf files.

If not, the pdf files are the same as an image file, and cannot be edited - your only option would be to mail them or email them as separate attachments to the prospective employer. This is not a feature that is commonly found in the online application programs. In this case, I would simply recommend that you add comments or to the effect that you will send a copy of letters of recommendation & transcript if requested.

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

Thanks. I think I'll have to email then instead of uploading online.

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