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Claude for Operators

Document Creation

Last verified: 13 February 2026 | Applies to: All plans (basic in Chat; full power in Cowork)

In 30 seconds

Section titled “In 30 seconds”

Claude can create Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint decks, and PDFs directly in conversation. In Chat, these appear as downloadable artifacts. In Cowork, Claude can create, save, and organise files in your working folder. This workflow covers both approaches and when to use each.

How it works

Section titled “How it works”

In Chat: Artifacts

Section titled “In Chat: Artifacts”

When you ask Claude to create a document in Chat, it produces an artifact — a rendered output that appears in the chat window. You can preview, iterate, and download the final version.

Create a spreadsheet:

Create an Excel spreadsheet with our Q1 sales data. Columns: Region, Revenue, Orders, AOV, Growth %. Include a summary row at the bottom with totals and averages.

Claude generates the spreadsheet as an artifact. Click to preview, then download as .xlsx.

Create a presentation:

Create a 5-slide PowerPoint for our board meeting. Slide 1: Title and agenda. Slide 2: Q1 financial summary (use the numbers I provided). Slide 3: Key wins. Slide 4: Risks and mitigations. Slide 5: Q2 priorities.

Create a PDF report:

Generate a PDF report from this data. Include a cover page with our company name, a table of contents, and formatted sections for each department.

Create a Word document:

Draft our client proposal as a Word document. Use the structure from our last proposal [paste example]. Update with Acme Corp's details and our revised pricing.

In Cowork: File operations

Section titled “In Cowork: File operations”

Cowork gives Claude full file access in your working folder. This is better for:

  • Batch operations (creating multiple documents from a template)
  • Complex documents that need data from multiple files
  • Workflows where documents need to be saved in specific locations

Batch document creation:

Read the client list in clients.csv. For each client, create a personalised renewal letter using the template in templates/renewal.docx. Save each letter as [client-name]-renewal.docx in the output/ folder.

Data-driven reports:

Read the sales data in q1-data.xlsx. Create a summary report for each region. Save as separate PDFs in the reports/ folder.

Tips for better documents

Section titled “Tips for better documents”

Be specific about formatting. Claude defaults to clean, professional formatting. If you want something specific — brand colours, particular fonts, a specific layout — describe it.

Use our brand colours: headers in #00a854 (green), body text in #333333. Font: Helvetica. Include our logo from logo.png in the header.

Provide a template. If you have a previous version of the document, share it. Claude replicates structure and style better than it creates from description alone.

Specify the audience. “A spreadsheet” is vague. “A spreadsheet for our CFO who wants to see monthly trends with quarter-over-quarter comparisons” produces targeted output.

Iterate in the same conversation. Don’t download and re-upload. Make changes in the same chat: “Move the summary to the top. Add a chart for the revenue column. Change the date format to DD/MM/YYYY.”

How operators actually use it

Section titled “How operators actually use it”
Section titled “Related”
  • Data Analysis — analyse data before generating reports
  • Chat — where artifacts are created
  • Cowork — for file-based workflows
  • Skills — the document creation skills explained

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