Using Claude

What Claude is

Claude is an AI assistant made by the company Anthropic. You talk to it in plain language, and it can explain, write, summarise, analyse and brainstorm with you.

You can use it at claude.ai in a web browser, or in the Claude apps for computer and phone. There's a free plan to start with; paid plans give you more use and more features. Features change often, so if a button in this module looks slightly different on your screen, look for the nearest match.

Sign up with your email or Google account, and you'll see a message box. That's where everything starts.

Ask, then follow up

Type your request the way you'd brief a helpful colleague: say what you need, who it's for, and what a good result looks like.

I manage a small pharmacy in Enugu. Explain, in simple terms, the
difference between gross profit and net profit, with a short example
using naira. I'm not an accountant.

Then keep the conversation going. Claude remembers what you've said earlier in the same chat, so you can refine the answer:

• "Now show me how to calculate both for a month where we sold ₦2.4m."
• "Put that in a small table."
• "What are the three most common costs I might be forgetting?"

Work with your own documents

One of Claude's most useful skills is reading documents for you. Use the attach button (usually a paperclip or +) to add a PDF, Word document, spreadsheet or image, then ask about it.

Good things to ask about a document:

Summarise this report in five bullet points for a busy manager.

List every deadline and amount of money mentioned in this contract,
with the page it appears on.

What questions should I ask before I sign this?

Always open the document yourself to check anything important Claude tells you, especially numbers, dates and legal wording. Claude is good at reading, but it can still misread or miss something.

Rewrite and improve your writing

Paste in something you've written and tell Claude who will read it:

Rewrite this for a customer, not an engineer. Keep it friendly and
under 80 words:

"Due to an upstream API outage our payment gateway returned 502 errors
between 14:00 and 15:30. Transactions were not captured."

You can also ask for:

• A shorter version: "Cut this to half the length without losing the main point."
• A different tone: "Make this more formal for a bank."
• Feedback instead of a rewrite: "Don't rewrite it. Tell me what's unclear."

Keep ongoing work in a project

If you use Claude for the same kind of work again and again (your business, a course, a job search), create a project. A project keeps related chats together and lets you add:

• Files Claude should always be able to refer to, such as your price list or a style guide.
• Instructions it should always follow, such as "Write in British English. Our business is called Ada's Kitchen, based in Lekki."

Then every new chat inside that project starts already knowing the background, so you don't repeat yourself.

Try it

1. Go to claude.ai and sign in.
2. Attach a document you're allowed to share: a school handout, a public report or a letter you received.
3. Ask: "Summarise this in five bullet points, then tell me the one thing I most need to act on."
4. Follow up with one question about something in the summary.
5. Open the document and check one fact Claude gave you.