Make Claude create Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files (Skills)

When you finish this guide, you can ask Claude for “a 10-slide deck from these notes” or “a budget spreadsheet with formulas” and get an actual file you can open in PowerPoint or Excel, not a block of text to copy and paste. Two Claude features make this work together:

• Code execution and file creation: a private sandbox where Claude runs code to build files.
• Skills: folders of instructions and scripts that Claude loads for a specific task. Anthropic ships ready-made skills for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF that, per Anthropic’s docs, “activate automatically when relevant”.

What you’ll have at the end

• The right settings switched on for your plan.
• A downloaded .docx, .pptx, .xlsx or PDF made by Claude.
• Prompts that produce files you can hand to someone without fixing them first.

What you need

Feature	Plans (per Anthropic’s help center)	Where
Code execution and file creation	Free, Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise	Web, Claude Desktop, mobile
Skills (including Anthropic’s document skills)	Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise	claude.ai and Claude Desktop; Claude Code

File limit: 30 MB per file, for uploads and downloads. Supported output types are Excel (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), Word (.docx) and PDF.

The help center lists file creation for Free users and Skills only for paid plans. If you’re on Free, you can still try the steps below; you just won’t see a Skills page to manage.

Step-by-step

In claude.ai or Claude Desktop

1. Turn on code execution. Go to Settings > Capabilities (claude.ai/settings/capabilities) and switch on Code execution and file creation. Anthropic says it’s on by default for Free, Pro and Max users, Team organizations and new Enterprise organizations, so it may already be on.
   • On the mobile app: tap your initials or name in the sidebar, then Settings > Capabilities.
   • On Team or Enterprise: an Owner controls this under Organization settings > Capabilities. Enterprise Owners must also enable Skills there.
2. Check the document skills are on. Open Customize > Skills (claude.ai/customize/skills). Skills from Anthropic appear under From Anthropic & Partners on the Your skills tab. Select Turn on for any that are off. Older help articles put Skills under Settings > Capabilities; your app version decides which you see.
3. Ask for a file. Describe the document and say the format, for example “as a Word document”. Claude loads the matching skill when your request fits it. To choose a skill yourself, type / in the message box and select it.
4. Download it. The file appears in the conversation. Download it, or save it to Google Drive. On mobile, tapping Download opens it in your phone’s preview or another app, such as Word.
5. Iterate. Ask for changes in plain language (“make slide 3 a two-column comparison”) and download the new version.

You can also upload an existing file (under 30 MB) and ask Claude to edit it: “Add a summary sheet to this workbook” or “Fix the headings in this report”.

In Claude Code

Claude Code works on files on your own computer. Anthropic’s public skills repository includes the same document skills as a plugin:

1. Start Claude Code in a folder where you want the files saved.

2. Register the repository as a plugin marketplace:

   /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills

3. Install the document skills:

   /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills

   Or run /plugin, choose Browse and install plugins, select anthropic-agent-skills, then document-skills, then Install now.

4. Ask for a file, naming the skill if you like: “Use the PDF skill to extract the form fields from forms/application.pdf.”

The repository’s README notes that the docx, pdf, pptx and xlsx skills are source-available, not open source, and that its skills are provided “for demonstration and educational purposes”. The behavior you get in claude.ai may differ from these copies.

Want your own house style?

A custom skill can hold your brand colors, fonts, logo and slide rules, so every deck starts on-brand. In claude.ai, you package a skill folder as a ZIP and click Upload skill in the Skills section. In Claude Code, put it at ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md for all your projects or .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md for one project. A SKILL.md starts with a short header containing a name and a description; Claude reads the description to decide when to use the skill.

Make it useful: prompts to try

Turn the notes below into a 10-slide PowerPoint for a 15-minute talk to non-technical managers. One idea per slide, no more than 4 bullets each, speaker notes on every slide, and a final slide with 3 decisions we need from them. Give me the .pptx file.
<paste notes>

Create an Excel workbook for a 12-month household budget. Sheet 1: monthly income and expense categories with real SUM formulas and a running balance. Sheet 2: a summary with totals per category and a bar chart. Use clear headers, freeze the top row, and format money as currency. Then tell me which cells hold formulas so I can check them.

Here's my meeting transcript. Write a 2-page Word document: a one-paragraph summary, a decisions table (decision, owner, date), and an action list. Use proper Word headings so the navigation pane works. Then also export it as a PDF.

Asking Claude to list which cells contain formulas (prompt 2) is a quick way to check the spreadsheet calculates, rather than holding typed-in numbers.

Troubleshooting

• Claude replies with text instead of a file. Check Code execution and file creation is on in Settings > Capabilities, then say the format explicitly (“as an .xlsx file”).
• No Skills section. Skills need a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. On Enterprise, an Owner must enable them first.
• Upload or download fails. Files are limited to 30 MB. Split large files or remove big images.
• Custom skill upload fails. The help center lists common causes: a size limit, a folder name that doesn’t match the skill name, a missing skill file, or invalid characters in the name or description.
• Claude Code can’t find the plugin. Run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills first, then install.

Watch out for

• Anthropic warns that with network access on, hidden instructions in an outside file or website could trick Claude into running untrusted code or sending data out of the sandbox. Watch what Claude does, and stop it if it accesses data you didn’t expect.
• Only install skills from sources you trust. Anthropic says skills you upload or that are shared with you aren’t reviewed by Anthropic, and recommends reading a skill’s SKILL.md and bundled files (especially scripts and anything that connects to the internet) before turning it on.
• Check numbers, names and dates in any generated document before you send it.

Next steps

• Let Claude read and update your Notion, then turn Notion pages into decks or reports.
• Add your first MCP server or connector to feed Claude more of your own data.