ATS Guides

Chameleon-i ATS Guide for Recruitment Agencies

Learn how to fix CV formatting issues and avoid parsing errors in Chameleon-i ATS. Improve candidate processing efficiency with practical tips. Get the guide.

By Xabi Errotabehere, founder, Distill · Updated 18 July 2026

Chameleon-i is a popular ATS and CRM for UK recruitment agencies, but its CV parsing and upload processes come with quirks that can slow you down. Knowing how Chameleon-i handles CVs helps you avoid common errors and speed up candidate processing.

TL;DR: Chameleon-i struggles with tables, unusual fonts, and embedded images in CVs. Use simple formatting and clean Word or PDF files. Parsing errors often require manual fixes. Distill can automate formatting and anonymisation before upload to save time.

What you need to know about CVs in Chameleon-i

Chameleon-i's parsing engine is fairly standard but sensitive to formatting. It extracts candidate details like contact info, employment history, and education to populate records. It doesn't handle complex layout elements well. Tables, text boxes, and columns frequently cause data to jumble or drop out.

CVs with embedded photos or logos can also confuse its parser. Images sometimes break the flow of text extraction, leading to missing data fields. Uncommon fonts or heavy styling like coloured text can cause garbled output.

Chameleon-i's parser works best with clean, simple Word documents (.doc or .docx) or text-based PDFs. Scanned PDFs or those with complex graphics increase the chance of errors.

If you're sending CVs externally to clients via Chameleon-i, remember it generates Word or PDF exports from its candidate records — not the original CV file. That means you might need to reformat before upload or export to avoid losing layout or details.

Formatting guide

Chameleon-i requires straightforward CV formatting to parse correctly. Follow these practical rules:

  • Use standard fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman.
  • Avoid tables, columns, text boxes, or text wrapped around images.
  • Keep all contact details in a simple header or at the top of the CV.
  • Use bullet points for skills and responsibilities instead of embedded icons or symbols.
  • Limit the use of bold and italics to section headers only.
  • Avoid embedded photos or logos.
  • Save and upload CVs as Word (.doc/.docx) or text-based PDFs. Avoid scanned PDFs.
  • Use clear section headings: Contact, Profile, Employment History, Education, Skills.
  • Keep dates in a consistent format, ideally month/year.

These formatting rules reduce parsing errors and speed up your workflow. If you frequently receive CVs that break these rules, use a tool to clean and normalise the formatting before upload.

Parsing errors

Chameleon-i parsing errors often stem from layout complexity or unsupported elements:

  • Tables and columns: The most common culprit. Data in tables may merge into single lines or drop out entirely.
  • Embedded images: Photos or logos can break text flow, causing missing fields.
  • Unusual fonts and colours: Can cause garbled text or missing characters.
  • Scanned or image-based PDFs: Parsed as one block of text, losing structure.
  • Date formats: Mixed or non-standard date formats confuse the parser.
  • Multiple phone numbers or emails: Sometimes only the first contact detail is captured.
  • Special characters and symbols: Often stripped out or misread.

When you see parsing errors, the quickest fix is to open the CV in Word and simplify the format — remove tables, convert columns to single column, delete images, and save again. Avoid using PDFs that originated as scans.

If you need a reference, see our detailed Chameleon-i parsing errors guide.

Upload issues

Uploading CVs to Chameleon-i can cause headaches if the file format or size isn't right:

  • File type: Chameleon-i supports Word (.doc/.docx) and PDF. Avoid scanned PDFs or other file types.
  • File size limits: Keep CVs under 5MB to prevent upload failures.
  • Filename restrictions: Avoid special characters in filenames — keep it simple, like CandidateName_JobTitle.docx.
  • Batch uploads: When uploading multiple CVs, errors in one file can cause the entire batch to fail. Check each CV's format first.
  • Duplicate records: Chameleon-i flags duplicates based on email and phone number. Clean or anonymise CVs before upload to avoid false matches.
  • Metadata stripping: Uploaded CVs sometimes lose metadata or embedded data, which can affect parsing.

If you experience frequent upload failures, check the file format and size, then try uploading single files to isolate the problem. Our Chameleon-i upload issues guide covers common problems in more detail.

Distill + Chameleon-i

Distill helps recruitment agencies using Chameleon-i by automatically cleaning and formatting CVs before upload. It removes problematic tables, images, and photos that break Chameleon-i's parser. It also strips personal data like name, email, phone, and graduation year to support anonymised submissions to clients.

Instead of manually reformatting CVs, Distill processes them in seconds, delivering a clean Word document ready for Chameleon-i import. This reduces parsing errors and saves recruiters time spent fixing broken CVs.

If you're sending 20+ CVs a week to Chameleon-i, Distill handles the formatting and anonymisation automatically, so your team can focus on recruiting — not file fixes.

Try Distill with your ATS export and see the difference in parsing accuracy and upload speed.