Dealing with problem CVs

Whilst the Influence software is generally very good at dealing with CVs that are drag/dropped into the system, sometimes, when you try to drop a CV from an email into Influence, you will get an error message stating that there is a problem.

There are several different error messages that may appear and several reasons for this. Some of the more common issues are explained below, with a suggestion for how to deal with them.

Contents (Click an Item to Jump to that section)

1. Unable to save temporary document

2. Unable to open the CV file - Please try again

3. Error moving existing file - the Document may be locked

4. Unable to insert original CV because the Source Document is not a valid Word Document

5. Dealing with Text Formatting errors

6. Dealing with 'missing' fields or data when the CV is Parsed

Message 1     “Unable to save temporary document”

 What to do?

Cancel the candidate record you are in, and go back to the candidate workbench in Influence.
If you dragged the file directly from an email attachment, save it to a folder or onto your desktop and do the following.

i) Open the file using MS Word. Go to the end of the document, add a  to the end, the choose file > Save as, and re-save the document as either a 97-2003 MS Word, or a *.PDF file with a new name. 

Then try to Drag/drop the new version of this document into Influence.

ii) If this fails, then it is sometimes the fact that the MS word CV file size is too big, or badly formatted. Check the FILE size. If it is unreasonably large (e.g. 6, 7, 8mb or larger) then you will need to save the CV properly to make it smaller.

iii) If this fails, check the name of the document. The file name must not contain any foreign characters (so CVs from non-UK applicants may well be more prone to this). If the filename has foreign characters, then simply open the document with MS word, then re-save with a simpler name,

e.g. LÔREÑÑZA_CRÛЧŹǾ.doc  could be re-saved as Lorennza_Cruyzo.doc

Message 2     “Unable to open the CV file – Please try again.”

What to do?

This usually occurs when you are updating the CV of an existing candidate. It means that the CV document shown at the top of the Docs page of the candidate record is locked, open or set as Read Only.

i) Find out if there is another user who has this document open and ask them to close it.

ii) If no-one claims to have this document open, then you may need to close your Influence session and log out, shut down & re-start your PC. This will ensure that YOUR machine is not locking the file. You can then try to drag/drop the new CV again.

Message 3     “Error moving existing file – the document may be locked.”

What to do?

This usually occurs when you are updating the CV of an existing candidate. It means that the CV document shown at the top of the Docs page of the candidate record is locked, open or set as Read Only or that the permissions on the folder are incorrect.

i) Find out if there is another user who has this document open and ask them to close it.

ii) If no-one claims to have this document open, then you may need to close your Influence session and log out, shut down & re-start your PC. This will ensure that YOUR machine is not locking the file. You can then try to drag/drop the new CV again.

iii) If there is still a problem, it may be that the read/write permissions on the Influence_Docs folders need to be re-set (this is normally only the case for new systems)

Message 4     “Unable to insert original CV because the source document is not a valid Word document”

What to do?

This usually occurs when you drag/drop a CV that is either a *.docx or a *.pdf file that the system is then unable to convert to make the ‘Safe CV’.  The system will normally handle these types of file, but may fail if either (a) your system is old and needs updating or (b) it is a particularly ‘odd’ file.

i) If it is just the odd file occasionally, then open the original CV that you are trying to import using MS word, make a small change, and then re-save the file as an MS Word 97-2003 document. Then drag/drop the new copy.

ii) If it is an occasional file, and is a *.PDF file, then open the file using your PDF reader software, select ALL text, then copy/Paste this into a brand new MS word document (97-2003 format). Then drag/drop the newly made MS Word document into Influence.

iii) If this occurs every time you drop any *.docx file, please contact Influence so that we can check and update the software if necessary.

Dealing with text formatting Errors

Sometimes when you drag/drop a CV into Influence, the system will process the CV with no error messages, but the format of the text that appears on the CV ‘preview’ page corrupted or radically different from the look of the original MS Word document.

In these cases, you should proceed as below:

i) Allow the system to create the candidate record. Once it has done so, go to the [Docs] tab of the candidate record, and open the CV Document at the top of the document manager.

ii) Once you have the original CV open (usually in MS Word) select all the text COPY it, then PASTE it onto the CV ‘Preview’ page over the top of the existing text. (i.e. make sure you’ve deleted all the ‘old’ preview text or overwritten all of it.)

This will ensure that the CV ‘Preview Page’ shows a more nicely formatted version of the original CV text.

Dealing with ‘Missing’ fields or data when the CV is parsed

Because CVs can be designed and formatted in a number of ways, occasionally the CV parsing process in Influence is unable to extract some of the contact information from the CV (such as Forename, Surname, postal address, etc)

In these cases, if the information can be seen on the CV you should simply Highlight the relevant information on the CV preview, then copy/paste it into the relevant field or right-click the highlighted text and use the field-picker.

Or

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Keywords: Deal with, Problem, CV, Message