More than a chatbot.
Here's the rest.
Most people use Claude one way: open a chat, ask a question, get an answer, start over tomorrow. That's a great start — but the app can also remember your context, build real documents, run tasks on a schedule, and connect to the apps you already use. This manual walks through every feature in plain language, with examples anyone can follow.
The big picture: two modes, one brain
Nearly everything in the app comes down to two ways of working with the same Claude, plus a layer that lets you customize it.
Chat — you drive
The conversation you already know. You ask, Claude answers, one message at a time. Best for thinking, writing, learning, quick documents, and anything where you want to steer each step.
Cowork — Claude drives
You describe an outcome ("sort these receipts into a spreadsheet and total them by month") and Claude makes a plan, works through the steps, uses files and tools, and hands you the finished result. You review instead of supervise.
Around those two modes sit the supporting cast:
- Projects give your work a permanent home — files, instructions, and memory that stick around.
- Artifacts are the tangible outputs — documents, web pages, even small apps — that appear beside the chat.
- Scheduled makes work happen automatically on a calendar, and Dispatch lets you fire off tasks from your phone.
- Claude Design is a visual canvas for building things you can see and click.
- Customize is the toolbox: Skills (how Claude works), Connectors (what Claude can reach), Plugins (bundles of both).
The biggest time-sink for new users is re-explaining themselves — who they are, what they're working on, how they like things done. Almost every feature below exists to stop you repeating yourself. Teach Claude once, and it remembers.
Chat, done properly
Before the fancy features: most people use maybe a third of what a plain chat can do. Here's the rest.
Web search & Research
Claude searches the web automatically when a question needs up-to-date information. For bigger questions ("compare the best family health insurance options"), toggle Research in the message box — Claude runs many searches and returns a cited summary. Minutes of work instead of an afternoon of tabs.
It creates files, not just reads them
Claude can produce real Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks and PDFs that you download — fully formatted. Ask for "a one-page résumé as a Word doc" or "a budget spreadsheet with formulas," and you get a finished file.
Search your past chats
Ask "what was that recipe we worked out last week?" and Claude looks back through your history. You no longer have to hunt for the old conversation — just reference it from a new one.
Talk instead of type
On the mobile app you can speak to Claude. Handy for brainstorming on a walk, or dictating a rough draft when typing is a pain.
The one habit that changes everything
Give Claude the role, the context, the format, and an example — in that order. Compare:
Write an email to my landlord
You're helping me write a polite but firm email to my landlord.
Context: the heating has been broken for a week and two calls went unanswered.
Tone: courteous, but clear that I expect it fixed this week.
Keep it short — under 150 words.
Ask me any question first if you need details.
That last line — inviting questions — is the most underused trick there is. It turns Claude from a guesser into a collaborator.
Projects — give your work a permanent home
A Project is a self-contained workspace: its own files, its own standing instructions, and its own memory. Every chat you start inside it already knows everything the project knows.
Three things live in a project:
- Knowledge. Upload reference files once — a lease, a recipe collection, past reports, study notes. Claude consults them in every conversation without you re-attaching them.
- Instructions. Standing orders for every chat in the project: "Always reply in simple language," or "Format answers as short bullet points," or "I'm studying for a nursing exam — quiz me as we go."
- Memory. Claude remembers context within the project across sessions — and it's scoped, so your "Home & family" project never mixes with your "Job hunt" project.
Projects almost anyone would find useful
Job hunt
Upload your résumé and a few target job ads. Instructions: your background and what roles you want. Then every cover letter and interview-prep chat starts with full context.
Studying
Add your course notes and syllabus. Ask Claude to explain topics, make flashcards, or quiz you — always aligned to what you're actually learning.
Home & family
Keep meal plans, a household budget, travel plans, and appointment notes in one place. "What's for dinner this week using what's already in the fridge?"
Projects come in two flavours: classic chat projects (great for thinking and writing) and Cowork projects (great for producing files, with scheduled tasks attached). You can start research in a chat project and hand it to a Cowork project later — think in one, do in the other.
Artifacts — the things Claude makes
An artifact is any standalone output that appears in its own panel next to the chat: a document, a webpage, a diagram, an interactive tool. This guide you're reading was created as an artifact.
Artifacts matter for two reasons:
- They're editable and versioned. Say "make the intro shorter" and the artifact updates in place — and you can flip back to earlier versions. Much nicer than scrolling a chat looking for the latest copy of your text.
- They can actually run. A webpage artifact works: a working budget calculator, an interactive checklist, a simple quiz. You get something you can use, not just read.
Ideas to try
Everyday
A packing checklist for a trip. A chore-chart for the family. A "which plant should I buy?" quiz. A single-page summary of a long document, formatted nicely.
A little fancier
A savings-goal calculator. A mortgage or loan comparison table. A simple personal webpage or event invitation you can share.
The Artifacts item in the sidebar is simply your gallery: everything Claude has built for you, in one place, ready to reopen and reuse.
Cowork — hand over the whole task
This is the big leap from "chatting" to "delegating." In Cowork, Claude makes a plan, breaks the work into steps, runs them in a safe isolated space, and delivers finished files — while you do something else.
What actually happens when you start a Cowork task
- Claude analyzes your request and shows you a plan you can approve or adjust.
- It works through the steps — reading files, creating documents, searching the web — for minutes or longer.
- Sessions run remotely on Anthropic's servers, so you can close your laptop and the work keeps going — then check on it from your phone.
- When Claude reaches a decision only you can make, it asks — and the question reaches whatever device you're on.
- With the desktop app open, Claude can also reach local folders you choose on your computer — reading and writing real files, not just uploads.
Here's a folder of holiday photos and receipts. Rename the photos by date,
sort the receipts into a spreadsheet with columns for date, shop and amount,
total it by category, and save everything back into the folder.
Chat vs Cowork — the rule of thumb
If it's one answer or one document: chat. If it's "many steps, several files, and I know what done looks like": Cowork. Cowork uses up your allowance faster, so save it for real jobs.
Computer use (optional, careful)
A preview feature where Claude can literally click and type in apps on your screen when there's no direct connection available. Powerful, slower than connectors, and not for anything sensitive. Leave it off until you have a real need.
When Claude can touch files on your computer, start with folders you don't mind it working in, and keep confirmation prompts on while you learn how it behaves. It always asks before permanently deleting anything.
Scheduled — work that happens without you
Write the instructions once, pick a cadence, and Claude runs the task automatically. Scheduled tasks now run remotely, so your computer doesn't even need to be on.
Set one up by clicking Scheduled in the sidebar (or typing /schedule inside a Cowork task). Write the brief like you're instructing a helpful assistant who doesn't know you yet: what to gather, what to skip, and how you'd like it delivered.
Schedules worth stealing
| Task | When | What Claude does |
|---|---|---|
| Morning news brief | Weekdays 07:00 | Summarizes overnight news on the topics you care about — five bullet points, no fluff. |
| Inbox triage | Weekdays 07:30 | With your email connected: summarizes new mail, flags anything urgent, and drafts (but never sends) replies for your review. |
| Weekly meal plan | Sunday evening | Builds a 7-day dinner plan and a shopping list based on your preferences and budget. |
| Bill & renewal reminder | 1st of the month | Reminds you what's due this month and flags any subscriptions worth reviewing. |
Every scheduled task replaces a little ritual where you were the trigger. If you catch yourself opening a new chat to ask the same thing twice, that's a schedule waiting to exist.
Dispatch — fire tasks from your pocket
Dispatch is one continuous thread between your phone and your computer. Send Claude a task from anywhere; it figures out what's needed, does the work, and messages you back the result.
- You text Claude on the bus: "Draft a thank-you note for the dinner party on Saturday and save it."
- Claude works out what kind of session the task needs and runs it — you see the outcome, not every step.
- You get a push notification when it's done, or when Claude needs a decision only you can make.
- Anything that touches files or apps on your computer needs the desktop app open on that machine; purely remote work doesn't.
Think of Scheduled as the calendar and Dispatch as the walkie-talkie. Together they mean Claude can work on your time, not only when you're sitting at a keyboard.
Dispatch can trigger real actions on your computer from your phone. Only point it at files and accounts you'd be comfortable handing to an assistant, and keep confirmation prompts on while you're learning.
Claude Design — a canvas for visual work
A dedicated workspace (from Anthropic Labs, currently in beta) for making polished visual things by conversation: web pages, slide decks, one-pagers, invitations, simple prototypes. Chat on the left, a live canvas on the right.
It's the grown-up version of what you saw when Claude built this manual as an artifact. The difference is the canvas and the direct controls: instead of only describing changes in words, you can point, click, and drag.
What makes it different from a normal chat
- You describe, Claude builds a first version — then you refine it through conversation until it's right.
- Inline comments. Click directly on a heading or a button on the canvas and ask for a change, instead of describing where it is.
- Adjustment controls. Drag, resize and align elements, and nudge spacing and colour with sliders.
- Real, usable output. Export to a web page, PDF, PowerPoint, or straight into Canva, where it becomes fully editable.
- Import from anywhere. Start from a prompt, or upload images and documents to say "make it look like this."
You reach it at claude.ai/design on the web, or from the sidebar in the Claude Desktop app.
Things anyone might make with it
Personal
A birthday party invitation, a simple one-page website for a side hobby, a nicely laid-out family newsletter, or a photo one-pager for a special occasion.
Work & school
A clean slide deck for a class presentation, a one-page proposal, a poster for a community event, or a tidy summary handout.
Make a birthday party invitation as a one-page design. Cheerful and colourful,
with space for the date, time and address, and a fun headline.
Then I'll tweak the colours on the canvas.
It's a research preview, so expect a few rough edges and weekly usage limits that may change. For anything important and public-facing it's a strong starting point, not a full replacement for finishing by hand. For quick designs and everyday decks, it's a real time-saver.
Artifacts = visual output that shows up beside any normal chat. Claude Design = a purpose-built canvas with click-and-drag controls for polishing that output. Canva (a connector) = where you take a design to finish, share and publish. Natural flow: prototype in Design → export to Canva → publish.
Customize — the toolbox behind everything
Customize is where you shape your Claude. It groups three tabs — Skills, Connectors, Plugins — each with a "+" button that opens one unified directory where you browse and install everything.
Skills
How Claude works. Instruction packages that load automatically when they're relevant.
Connectors
What Claude can reach. Live links to your real accounts and data.
Plugins
Bundles. Skills + connectors + commands packaged as one install.
A handy way to remember it: connectors are the plumbing, skills are the instructions, plugins are the finished product. The next three sections take each in turn.
Skills — teach Claude your way of doing things
A skill is a package of instructions (and sometimes templates) that Claude loads automatically when a task matches it. You never switch a skill on manually — you just ask for work, and the right skill quietly kicks in.
Three kinds of skills
- Built-in. Anthropic ships skills for making Excel, PowerPoint, Word and PDF files. When Claude formats a spreadsheet or a slide deck for you, a skill is doing the work behind the scenes.
- Directory skills. Ready-made skills you install with one click from Customize → Skills → + → Browse skills.
- Custom skills. Your own. A simple one is just a short document of instructions — no coding required. You can even ask Claude in a chat to write the skill for you, then upload it.
A custom skill anyone could make
"My writing voice" skill
Teach Claude how you like to write — friendly, no jargon, short paragraphs, British spelling. Then everything it drafts for you sounds like you, in any conversation, without a reminder.
"Family recipes" skill
Your dietary rules, favourite cuisines, portion sizes and the ingredients you always have. Ask for a dinner idea and it fits your household automatically.
Help me create a custom skill that teaches you my writing voice.
Interview me with a few questions about how I like to write, then generate
the skill file and package it as a ZIP I can upload in Customize → Skills.
Skills versus projects, since they overlap: project instructions live in one project; a skill follows you across every conversation and only activates when it's relevant. A general habit ("always use plain language") is a skill. Context for one specific job is a project.
Connectors — plug Claude into apps you already use
A connector is a secure, one-click link (you approve it through the app's own login screen) that lets Claude read from and act in an app on your behalf. It ends the copy-paste era: no more downloading a file just to upload it into a chat.
Popular connectors and what they unlock
| Connector | What Claude can do for you |
|---|---|
| Gmail / Outlook | Search your mail, summarize long threads, and draft replies. "Find the email with the plumber's quote and remind me what he charged." |
| Google Calendar | Check your week and help you plan. "Find three free evenings next week and hold them for gym sessions." |
| Google Drive | Search and read your actual files. "Summarize the school newsletter I saved last month." No upload step. |
| Canva | Create and edit designs — invitations, posters, social posts — then export them, without leaving Claude. |
| Spotify | The fun one. "Build me a relaxing playlist for a Sunday morning." |
| Notion / to-do apps | Read and update your notes and task lists so Claude works with your real plans, not a copy. |
The directory has 200+ connectors spanning email, calendars, storage, design, notes and more. Adding one takes under a minute: Customize → Connectors → + → Browse connectors → Connect, then approve the login. All directory connectors are free on every plan.
Check my calendar for a free Saturday next month, draft an email inviting
my family to a get-together that day, and make a simple invitation in Canva.
Each connector only accesses what you grant, and you can disconnect any of them at any time from the same menu. You can also switch connectors off per-conversation — no reason to have your email connected in a chat about gardening. Review the list every few months and remove what you don't use.
Plugins — pre-assembled workflows
A plugin bundles several things — skills, connector settings, commands — into one install. Where a skill is one capability and a connector is one app, a plugin is a whole setup for a role or workflow.
- Anthropic launched official plugins for areas like sales, finance and marketing, and a marketplace of third-party plugins followed, with an "Anthropic Verified" badge for reviewed ones.
- You install them from the same directory: Customize → Plugins → + → Browse. Once installed, their skills are available in chat and Cowork.
- Honest advice for a beginner: explore plugins last. They shine for teams standardizing how they work. On your own, you'll get more from a couple of good connectors and one custom skill first.
Memory, preferences & styles
The quiet layer that makes everything feel personal.
Memory
Claude builds up a memory of your past conversations — your interests, ongoing projects, how you like things — and uses it in new chats. You stay in control: view and edit what's remembered in settings, tell Claude directly to remember or forget things, or start an Incognito chat when you want no memory involved at all.
Preferences & styles
Set standing preferences (tone, formatting, "keep it brief") that apply everywhere. Writing styles are being folded into the skills system, so a "my writing voice" skill is the future-proof way to lock in how Claude sounds.
Open a new chat and ask: "What do you remember about me?" Then correct anything that's out of date. Two minutes of tidying pays off in every future conversation.
Which tool, when?
Print this table. It's the whole manual in a dozen rows.
| I want to… | Reach for | Everyday example |
|---|---|---|
| Ask, learn, draft, think | Chat | "Explain how a mortgage works in simple terms." |
| Keep context for ongoing work | Project | A "Job hunt" project with your résumé as knowledge. |
| Get a document / page / tool | Artifact or file creation | A budget spreadsheet; a packing checklist you can tick off. |
| Delegate a multi-step job | Cowork | "Sort these receipts into a spreadsheet and total them." |
| Make it recur automatically | Scheduled | A weekday morning news brief. |
| Kick off work from my phone | Dispatch | Draft a thank-you note from the bus. |
| Design visually on a canvas | Claude Design | A party invitation, then export it to Canva. |
| Teach Claude my methods | Skill | A "my writing voice" skill so drafts sound like me. |
| Give Claude my real data/apps | Connector | Connect email + calendar to plan and reply in one go. |
| Install a whole workflow | Plugin | Explore later, once you know what you repeat often. |
| Make it feel like my Claude | Memory & preferences | Curate memory once; set a "keep it brief" preference. |
Zero to hero in 30 days
One habit per week. Each builds on the last, and every exercise produces something you'll actually use.
1
Master the chat you already use
- Mon–Tue: Use the strong-prompt pattern (role → context → format → "ask me questions") on three real tasks.
- Wed: Run one Research query on a real question and compare it with a normal chat answer.
- Thu: Have Claude create a real Word doc and a real spreadsheet. Notice you never had to format anything.
- Fri: Ask "what do you remember about me?" and tidy your memory.
2
Build two or three Projects
- Create projects for the things you return to — a job hunt, studying, home admin — with knowledge files and instructions.
- Do a real task inside a project and feel the difference: zero re-explaining.
3
Connect an app and make one skill
- Connect your email or calendar and run the combo move (plan a get-together, draft the invite, make a graphic).
- Build and upload a "my writing voice" skill (Claude writes it for you — use the prompt in the Skills section).
- Review your connector list and remove anything you don't use.
4
Go hands-off: Cowork, Scheduled, Dispatch
- Run your first Cowork task (the receipts-and-photos example is a gentle one).
- Create one scheduled task — a morning brief or a weekly meal plan.
- Dispatch a task from your phone and review the result later.
And the most important thing has nothing to do with features: don't wait until you've mastered everything. Pick one idea from week one and use it today. The people who get the most out of Claude aren't the ones who read the most about it — they're the ones who started.
Safety habits worth having
A few simple rules keep you in control as Claude does more for you.
- Skills from strangers are code. Only install skills from sources you trust; if someone hands you one, have a look at it before enabling. Some publicly shared skills have contained real problems.
- Connectors are permissions. Review the list every few months. Disconnect what you don't use. Switch sensitive connectors off in conversations that don't need them.
- Let Claude earn autonomy. When it can act on your computer, start with confirmation prompts on and only relax them for tasks you've watched work.
- Keep sensitive apps off-limits. Don't hand Claude's "computer use" feature access to banking, health or other sensitive accounts.
- Double-check what matters. Claude is excellent and still fallible. Anything with real stakes — money, medical, legal, official forms — deserves a human read before you act on it, and for those areas a qualified professional is the right call.