Do text boxes break ATS?
The short answer
They can. In a Word resume, our check takes 15 points off the formatting score when content sits inside a text box, because some parsers skip text boxes entirely. Put your content in the main body of the page instead.
What we measured
Measured
For a Word (.docx) file, the format check reads the file's structure and counts text boxes that hold content. Any text box costs 15 points from the formatting score, which starts at 100. The deduction is the same for one text box or several.
These are the rules of Passthrough's own scan, not a feed from any employer's system. A PDF does not record text boxes as such, so the check cannot count them in a PDF.
Where text boxes come from
Text boxes usually arrive with a designed template: a sidebar for contact details or skills, a banner at the top, a box around a summary. They look tidy because they float over the page. That floating is the problem: the box is not part of the main flow of text, so a parser that reads the main flow can pass over it.
Why we deduct for them
Our advice
If your email address, phone number or skills sit in a text box and a parser skips the box, that information is missing from the record built from your resume. We would rather you see that cost in a free scan than find out from silence.
This is our reasoning. We have not tested any named employer system for this article.
What to do
Our advice
Move anything inside a text box into normal paragraphs, under headings. Keep contact details as plain text near the top of the page. If a design element matters to you, keep it decorative and make sure nothing important lives only inside it.
Compare this cost with the others in the penalty simulator, or read how tables are treated.
See what a scan makes of your resume
The scan is free, and you see your full breakdown before you decide anything.
Keep reading
- Do tables break ATS?A plain answer on tables in resumes: when our check takes points off, how many, and why a single column of plain text is the safer choice.
- How Passthrough scores resume formattingEvery formatting deduction in the Passthrough scan, listed with its points and the file types it applies to, straight from the scoring engine.