I don't understand. Is resume formatting that big of a deal for job seekers? I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that formatting a resume was trivial, but that managing your job search effectively was hard.
It's actually surprisingly difficult to do if your skills in design aren't that crash hot. That's why templates in Word are so popular around this area.
Is the formatting of the document really that important. I would have thought the employer would be focussing on your qualifications/experience rather than your design skills in MS Word.
Humans don't work that way. It all adds up to your overall impression. The resume will be laying on the table during the interview, and you want it to convey the impression that you're professional, smart, and pay attention to detail.
Conveying the message that you don't care about our decadent society's obsession with superficiality and appearance, or whatever message you convey with an ASCII-only resume, obviously works in some situations. But in general, Postel's Law applies here.
Not in a while :) If I'm honest I do pay attention to the design/formatting of my résumé, I still would hope that a good employer would be more concerned about the information on the page. It can't always be counted on though.