Guide: Use Claude in PowerPoint

Short but Sweet — and Very Worth Your Time

Today's guide is a quick one, but if you spend a meaningful chunk of your week building decks, it's one of the most immediately useful things you can implement. Claude now runs directly inside PowerPoint as an official add-in — reading your template, layouts, and formatting — so you can generate and reshape slides without leaving the app. No copy-pasting between tools. No reformatting from scratch.

If presentations are a regular part of your workflow, this is worth 10 minutes to set up.

What You're Installing (Set the Right Expectations)

Before diving in, it helps to know what this actually is.

Claude by Anthropic in PowerPoint is an official Microsoft add-in that runs inside the PowerPoint interface. It's template-aware, meaning it can read your slide masters, layouts, fonts, and colors — not just drop generic content onto a blank slide.

Access is currently available as a beta/research preview on paid Claude plans, with access continuing to expand per Anthropic's documentation.

Step 1: Install Claude in PowerPoint (Individual User)

Option A — Microsoft Marketplace (Recommended)

1. Open the Microsoft Marketplace listing for Claude by Anthropic in PowerPoint.

2. Click Get it now to add it to your Microsoft account.

3. Open PowerPoint.

4. Navigate to the add-in panel:

   • Windows: Home → Add-ins (or Insert → Add-ins), then open Claude

   • Mac: Tools → Add-ins, then open Claude

5. In the Claude panel, sign in with your Claude account credentials.

Step 2: Install for a Team (Admin Deploy)

If you're rolling this out across a team or organization:

1. Go to Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Settings → Integrated Apps → Add-ins

2. Search for Claude by Anthropic in PowerPoint via AppSource/Marketplace

3. Deploy to the relevant users or groups, then share internal setup instructions with your team

Step 3: Day-1 Usage Workflows

Once it's installed, here's how to get immediate value.

Workflow 1 — Create Slides from Your Company Template

This is the highest-value starting point, because it forces Claude to work within your actual brand system rather than generating generic slides.

1. Open PowerPoint and create a new deck from your company template.

2. Add one blank slide for every layout type you actually use — Title, Section Divider, 1-column, 2-column, Chart Slide, etc. Save this file as Template-Layout-Inventory.pptx.

3. Open Claude (either in the PowerPoint panel or via Claude web) and upload that PPTX.

4. Run this prompt:

Analyze this deck. Create an inventory of all slide layouts and when to use each.

5. Then follow up with:

Build a 10-slide deck on [topic]. First give me an outline mapped to the best layout types from the inventory, then generate the slides using the template and preserve formatting.

6. Review and finalize in PowerPoint. Claude handles the structure and content generation — you do the final polish for brand, data accuracy, and legal sign-off.

Template-friendly constraints worth adding to your prompts:

Max 5 bullets per slide
Minimum 14pt body, 24pt headers
No overlapping elements; keep 0.75" margins
Prefer native PowerPoint charts/diagrams, not screenshots

These constraints are peer-tested and help prevent common formatting issues when generating into existing templates.

Workflow 2 — Edit or Reshape an Existing Deck

This is the fastest option for day-to-day deck work when you're refining something that already exists.

1. Open your deck in PowerPoint.

2. Select the slide or slides you want to change.

3. In the Claude panel, describe the edit you need. For example:

Simplify this slide to 3 bullets and convert the last section into a 4-step process diagram.

Or for restructuring across multiple slides:

Restructure slides 4–7 into a clearer storyline; keep the same design.

4. Accept the changes, then sanity-check for brand accuracy, data integrity, and any legal or compliance requirements before sharing.

The Core Value Proposition

The reason this workflow matters is the same principle that runs through every AI-powered process worth building: AI handles the repetitive production work, you focus on strategy and quality control. Claude can draft, restructure, and reformat slides in seconds. What still requires your judgment is whether the story is right, the data is accurate, and the output meets your brand standards.

For anyone who regularly produces decks under time pressure, that division of labor is a significant upgrade.

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