How to use Claude in Microsoft Word

About this video

Kevin shows how to set up Claude in Microsoft Word. A paid subscription is required. In Word on Mac or Windows, go to the Home ribbon, click Add-ins, and search for Claude; Claude for Microsoft 365 (versus Claude for Word) also sets up the add-in for Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps. The Claude button opens the panel to sign in. You can describe a draft for a blank document, or drag a file into the chat field — e.g. attaching an employee manual to draft an operations manual from it. For existing documents, ask for feedback on a section and specify ‘Do not offer me a rewrite. Just give me feedback,’ or ask Claude to make edits. Before edits, choose whether to automatically accept all edits or require your approval, and optionally enable Track Changes with All Markup displayed so changes are marked and reversible; the example rewrites a paid time off section using updated information from a dropped-in spreadsheet. Claude Skills are more than pre-written prompts, containing specific parameters/instructions and sometimes reaching external libraries; some are listed on a new chat, a larger list appears by typing forward slash, a skill can flag document issues, and you can create your own for recurring tasks. Claude can also work across Office apps: enable ‘allow Claude to work across files’ in settings in each app (administrators must enable it for teams/enterprise), and a menu shows documents open in other apps — e.g. from Excel, select cells in a vacation spreadsheet and have Claude create a summary graph and add it to the PTO section of the open employee manual in Word. Compared with Copilot: at recording time Claude did not generate images while Copilot can, Copilot has tools outside its panel (floating rewrite tool, blank-document draft field), and Copilot has deeper Microsoft 365 integration via Work IQ referencing documents, emails, messages, and transcripts under the same Microsoft security, whereas Claude data moves from Microsoft’s Azure system to Claude’s separate system, which IT may need to evaluate. Tip: model choice manages usage — with Claude Pro, hitting the limit means waiting 5 hours for reset, and Opus uses more credits than Sonnet.

Key takeaways

• Requires a paid Claude subscription; install via Home ribbon > Add-ins > search Claude — choose Claude for Microsoft 365 to also cover Excel, PowerPoint, and other apps
• Draft from a prompt or by dragging in a reference file, ask for feedback-only with no rewrite, and control edits via approval/auto-accept settings plus Track Changes with All Markup
• Skills (listed on new chat or via forward slash, and customizable) bundle parameters/instructions for tasks like flagging document issues
• With cross-files enabled in each app (admin-enabled for teams/enterprise), Claude can pass information between Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, e.g. adding an Excel-data graph into a Word document
• Versus Copilot at recording time: Claude does not generate images and works only in its panel, Copilot has deeper Microsoft 365 Work IQ integration and data stays under Microsoft security, while Claude data moves to Claude’s separate system; picking an older model like Sonnet over Opus conserves Pro usage credits, which reset after 5 hours at the limit

Episode details: published June 15, 2026 · 9:39 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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