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Claude Skills

Work with PDFs, Word, Excel & PowerPoint

Claude Code ships with skills for the four file types you actually deal with at work. You do not learn commands. You just describe what you want in plain English.
⏱ ~8 min

What this covers. Four skills that handle the office files you live in: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), and PowerPoint (.pptx). Together they let Claude read, create, and edit real documents on your machine.

The key thing. There are no special commands to memorize. You ask in plain language, and Claude reaches for the right skill on its own. "Merge these two PDFs." "Build me a deck from this outline." That is the whole interface.

1
The four document skills
2 min

Each skill specializes in one file type. Here is what each one is for, at a high level:

PDF

Read and pull text or tables out of a PDF. Merge several into one, or split one apart. Rotate pages, add watermarks, fill in PDF forms, encrypt or decrypt, extract images, and run OCR on a scanned PDF so its text becomes searchable.

Word (.docx)

Create polished Word documents from scratch (reports, memos, letters, templates), edit existing ones, and extract or reorganize their content. Handles formatting like headings, tables of contents, and page numbers.

Excel (.xlsx)

Create new spreadsheets, edit existing ones, add columns and formulas, build charts, and clean up messy tabular data into something usable. Works with .xlsx, .csv, and similar tabular files.

PowerPoint (.pptx)

Create slide decks and presentations, edit existing ones, and extract text or speaker notes out of a deck. Also handles combining or splitting slide files.

2
How you actually use them
1 min

You do not invoke these skills directly. You describe the outcome you want, point at the file if there is one, and Claude figures out the rest.

Mention the file type or the file itself, even casually, and the right skill triggers. "the xlsx in my Downloads" is enough for Claude to know it is an Excel job.

Files live in your folder

Claude works with files in the folder you opened in Claude Code. Put the document you want to work on in that folder, or tell Claude where it is, and ask away.

3
Example prompts
2 min

Real things you can paste. Adjust the filenames to match yours.

PDF

Merge invoice-jan.pdf, invoice-feb.pdf, and invoice-mar.pdf into one file called q1-invoices.pdf, in that order.

Word

Turn the notes in meeting-notes.txt into a clean one-page Word document with a title, headings for each topic, and a bulleted action-items section.

Excel

Open sales.xlsx and add a column called "Profit Margin" that shows revenue minus cost as a percentage of revenue. Revenue is column C, cost is column D.

PowerPoint

Build a 6-slide deck from the outline in pitch-outline.md: a title slide, four topic slides, and a closing slide with our contact info.
These are just starting points

You are not limited to these. Anything you would do by hand in Acrobat, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you can describe and ask for. Read this file, fix that formatting, pull out this table, fill this form.

4
Tips for good results
1 min
  • Name the file. "Clean up the spreadsheet" is vague. "Clean up sales-2026.xlsx" tells Claude exactly what to touch.
  • Say what the output should be. A Word doc? A PDF? A new file or an edit in place? Spell it out so you get the format you want.
  • Point at the source. If you are turning notes into a deck or a doc, tell Claude where the notes are.
  • Review before you send it on. Claude does the heavy lifting, but you are the one who knows if the numbers are right. Open the result and check it.
5
If a skill does not trigger

Claude answered in chat instead of touching the file

Be explicit. Name the file type and the file: "Edit the .docx report.docx and add a summary at the top." That removes any ambiguity about what you want.

The file is not where Claude expects

Claude works in the folder you opened. Move the document into that folder, or give Claude the full path to it.

You are not sure which skill handled it

You do not need to. Picking the right one is the skill system's job, not yours. Describe the outcome and let Claude route it.

Questions?

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