Never Send a Recruiter a Google Docs Link
Start with the thing that actually goes wrong, because almost nobody warns about it and the consequences are worse than a formatting glitch.
When you share a live Google Doc instead of attaching a file, you hand over more than the letter. Anyone with the link can open File → Version history and read every draft you wrote — including the paragraph about a different company you forgot to delete, and the timestamps showing you wrote the whole thing eleven minutes before applying. If a friend left comments in the margin, those travel too. So does the document title, which is frequently something like “cover letter TEMPLATE – change company name”.
There’s a second problem that’s purely practical: link access breaks. A recruiter opening it from outside your organisation may hit a permission request, and a document set to “anyone with the link can edit” can be changed — by them, by accident, or by you after they’ve read it.
Draft in Google Docs, then File → Download → PDF Document (.pdf) and attach the file. Never paste the docs.google.com URL into an application form or an email to a hiring manager — not even with view-only permissions, which still expose the document title and don’t stop someone opening version history if the link is ever changed to edit access.
What Google Docs Is Genuinely Good For Here
With that out of the way: Docs is a good place to write a cover letter, for reasons that have nothing to do with how it looks.
- Getting it read before you send it. A cover letter benefits enormously from one other person’s eyes, and comment-and-suggest is the least painful way to collect that feedback. Share with a specific person’s email, set to Comment, not with a public link.
- Version history as a safety net. The same feature that’s a liability when shared is genuinely useful privately — you can recover the paragraph you cut at 1am and regretted by morning.
- Writing across devices. Drafting on a phone on the train and finishing on a laptop is a real workflow, particularly during a high-volume search.
- One master, many variants. Keep a base letter and use File → Make a copy per application, rather than overwriting the only version you have.
Making a Docs Letter Export Properly
Google Docs is forgiving while you’re writing and unforgiving at export. Four settings decide whether the PDF looks like what you saw:
| Setting | Where | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Page size | File → Page setup | Docs defaults to US Letter. Applying in the UK, Europe, Australia or most of Asia, switch to A4 — otherwise the recipient’s printer rescales your margins |
| Margins | File → Page setup | Keep 2 cm / 0.8 in or more. Squeezing margins to fit one page is visible and risks clipping in print |
| Paragraph spacing | Format → Line & paragraph spacing → Add space after paragraph | Use this rather than pressing Enter twice. Empty paragraphs are what make a letter land unevenly on someone else’s screen |
| Fonts | Toolbar font menu | Google Fonts embed correctly in the PDF export, so anything in the default list is safe. A font pulled in from an add-on may not be |
Then export with File → Download → PDF Document, open the resulting file, and look at it. Not the Docs preview — the actual PDF. It takes fifteen seconds and it’s the only way to know what the recruiter will see.
A Workflow That Doesn’t Fall Apart at Volume
If you’re sending more than a couple of applications a week, the way you organise the documents matters as much as the documents. One approach that holds up:
- Keep one master letter with the structure fixed and the company-specific sentences marked clearly — square brackets work fine.
- Make a copy per application and name it
CL — Company — Role. Never edit the master directly. - Fill the bracketed parts, which should be the opening hook, the company name, and one sentence in the body that connects your example to their posting.
- Export to PDF named properly —
Firstname-Lastname-Cover-Letter.pdf, not the Docs title. Rename on download; Docs uses the document title by default and yours probably includes the company name of a different employer. - Keep the folder. When someone calls back three weeks later, you’ll want to re-read exactly what you told them.
The bracketed sentence that does the work
This is the one line that changes per application. Everything around it can stay fixed:
I’m applying for the [Role Title] position at [Company]. [One sentence naming something specific from the posting or the company, and connecting it to something you have actually done.]
Example, filled in: I’m applying for the Support Engineer position at Latchford Systems. Your posting mentions moving support from email to a ticketed queue — I ran that transition at a 30-person SaaS company last year, including the part where the backlog gets worse before it gets better.
The Built-In Gallery Problem
Google Docs ships with a handful of letter templates, and they’re free, immediate and right there in the File menu. That’s exactly why they’re worth thinking twice about.
Anyone who reads applications regularly has seen those layouts several hundred times. The effect isn’t that your letter looks bad — it looks fine — it’s that it looks like the default, which quietly communicates that the document took four minutes. In a stack where the top three candidates are closely matched, looking like the default is a small cost you don’t have to pay.
The templates on this page are distinct from that set and still edit natively in Docs, which is the combination worth having: familiar tooling, unfamiliar page.
Drafting on a Phone Without Wrecking the Layout
One genuine advantage of Docs is that you can write on a phone and finish on a laptop. The catch is that the mobile app hides most formatting controls, so it’s easy to introduce problems you won’t see until you’re back at a desk.
Two habits make mobile drafting safe:
- Write the words, not the layout. Type paragraphs, press Enter once between them, and leave every formatting decision for the desktop pass. Trying to set spacing or alignment on a phone is where the double-line-breaks come from.
- Never export from mobile. The page-setup settings that matter — page size especially — aren’t exposed in the mobile app, so a PDF exported from a phone frequently comes out US Letter when you needed A4.
Keep a file of lines that worked
Keep a Doc called something like “Lines that worked” and paste into it any sentence from a past application that got a response, plus any description of your own work you’re happy with. Writing a cover letter from a blank page at 11pm is the main reason people fall back on generic phrasing; writing one by assembling sentences you already know are good takes a third of the time and produces a better letter.
Using the Twelve Templates in Docs
All twelve templates here export to .docx, which opens directly in Google Docs — File → Open, or drop the file into Drive. A few behave better than others once they’re in Docs:
Verona, Ravenna, Bergen, Lisbon and Turin are plain single-column letters and convert essentially perfectly. These are the ones to use if Docs is your main editor.
Bruges, Nice, Seville, Malmo and Porto carry more distinctive header treatments. They convert well, but check the spacing above the first paragraph after import — header-heavy layouts are where Docs most often adds or loses a few points of space.
Vienna and Helsinki use a two-column split and a full-height sidebar. Both rely on layout structures Docs handles less predictably than Word does, so if you plan to edit in Docs, pick from the first two groups instead.
Wensa’s templates are designed by our founder and product design team — Artur Lopato has 9+ years of experience designing digital products. Every Wensa template is shaped around what hiring managers and recruiters actually look for when scanning a cover letter in seconds — which is why the plain layouts above survive a round trip through three different editors without the opening paragraph moving.
Building the resume in the same place? Our Google Docs resume templates follow the same export rules. And whichever editor you draft in, the cover letter format guide covers what belongs in each paragraph.
FAQ — Google Docs Cover Letter Templates
Can I send a recruiter a Google Docs link instead of a file?
Don’t. A shared document exposes your full version history — every earlier draft, including any mention of a different company — plus any comments and the document’s own title. Download as PDF and attach that instead.
How do I open these cover letter templates in Google Docs?
Export the template as .docx, then open it from Google Drive or use File → Open in Docs. The plain single-column templates — Verona, Ravenna, Bergen, Lisbon, Turin — convert most cleanly.
Why does my Google Docs cover letter look different after downloading?
Usually page size or paragraph spacing. Docs defaults to US Letter, which rescales if printed on A4, and empty paragraphs used as spacing render unpredictably. Set the page size under File → Page setup and use “Add space after paragraph” rather than pressing Enter twice.
Should I export as PDF or Word from Google Docs?
PDF, unless the posting specifically asks for Word. File → Download → PDF Document. Open the exported file afterwards and check it — the Docs preview is not always what the PDF contains.
How do I get someone to review my cover letter in Docs?
Share it with their email address specifically, set to Comment rather than Edit. Avoid “anyone with the link” sharing even for review — it’s the same exposure that makes sending a link to a recruiter a bad idea.
Why not just use the Google Docs built-in letter templates?
They’re fine, and they’re also instantly recognisable to anyone who reads applications — they read as the default rather than as a choice. The templates here edit natively in Docs while not looking like every third letter in the stack.
Can I write my cover letter on my phone in Google Docs?
For drafting the words, yes. Don’t format on mobile and don’t export from it — page setup isn’t exposed in the mobile app, so a PDF exported from a phone often comes out the wrong page size.
Does Google Docs embed fonts in the exported PDF?
Fonts from the standard Docs list embed correctly. A font pulled in through an add-on may not, which means the recipient could see a substituted typeface and different line breaks. Stick to the default font list for anything you’re sending.
Does Google Docs have built-in cover letter templates?
It has a small gallery, which is where a lot of applications start — and that’s exactly why those letters look familiar to anyone who reads applications regularly. The twelve here are distinct from that set and still edit natively in Docs.
What should I name the downloaded file?
Your own name and the document type: Firstname-Lastname-Cover-Letter.pdf. Docs names the download after the document title, which during an active job search is frequently the name of a different employer.
