{
  "id": 204300,
  "title": "Claude has 4 built-in skills I use constantly — here’s how to find them",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/06/claude-has-4-built-in-skills-i-use-constantly-heres-how-to-find-them",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-06T04:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Guide",
    "slug": "tom-s-guide",
    "url": "https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/claude-has-4-built-in-skills-i-use-constantly-heres-how-to-find-them"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Claude, Anthropic's chatbot, offers four built-in skills that users often find useful. These skills include creating and editing Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations. No additional downloads or installations are required; these skills are already integrated into Claude and accessible to Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise users.\n\nTo access Claude's built-in skills, begin by opening Claude and clicking your name or initials in the lower-left corner. From there, navigate to Settings, open Capabilities, and ensure Code execution and file creation are turned on. After returning to Claude's main screen, open Customize and select Skills to view the available options for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations. Turn on the skills you wish to use, and they will work automatically without the need for explicit selection.\n\nUsing these skills, Claude can generate finished files with proper formatting, formulas, charts, and page layouts. There's no need to copy content into another program, as Claude can create the final file directly. Here are four practical uses for Claude's built-in skills:\n\n1. Create polished Word documents: Claude can transform rough notes into a well-structured DOCX file. Users can request a title, introduction, section headings, and conversational tone while preserving links and direct quotes. Claude handles formatting, organization, and file creation, making it a valuable tool for writers needing to convert disorganized material into a readable format.\n\n2. Build an Excel spreadsheet from plain English: Claude's Excel Skill allows users to input data in various formats, such as tables, CSV files, or images containing data. By specifying the desired output (XLSX), Claude can organize the information, add formulas, and create charts. This skill is particularly helpful for tasks like budgeting, expense categorization, or converting long reports into concise tables and visuals.\n\n3. Turn information into a shareable PDF: Claude's PDF Skill can convert text, images, or data into a clean, one-page PDF guide. Users can request a clear title, short sections, and appropriate spacing for easy reading. Claude can also extract information from existing PDFs, such as tables, to create a shorter document. PDFs offer a stable layout across devices, making Claude's PDF Skill a useful tool for creating reference sheets, event guides, or printable checklists.\n\n4. Create an editable PowerPoint presentation: Claude can generate an eight-slide PPTX presentation based on a prompt, document, or collection of notes. Users can specify the number of slides, main ideas per slide, and the final slide's content (main takeaways). Claude handles slide titles, concise text, and slide design, saving users time in creating presentations. However, some manual cleanup may be necessary, as AI-generated presentations can have excessive text on slides.",
  "summary": "Discover four built-in Claude skills for creating Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and PowerPoint presentations — and learn how to enable them.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}