Use Claude for Word

Documentation Index

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Claude for Word is an add-in that brings Claude into Word. Ask questions about your document with clickable section citations, edit selected passages while preserving formatting, review counterparty redlines, work through comment threads, and fill templates in your document’s styles.

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What you can do

With Claude for Word, you can:

• Ask questions about your document and get answers with clickable section citations.
• Edit selected text while preserving surrounding styles, numbering, and formatting.
• Use tracked changes mode so every edit lands as a revision you can accept or reject in Word’s native review pane.
• Have Claude work through comment threads, editing the anchored text and replying with what it changed.
• Summarize counterparty redlines and flag the revisions worth pushing back on.
• Fill templates with drafted content that inherits your document’s heading and paragraph styles.
• Find every provision touching a theme with semantic navigation, not just keyword search.

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Get started with Claude for Word

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Supported versions

Claude for Word runs on the following Word builds.

• Word on the web
• Word on Windows with a Microsoft 365 subscription, Version 2205, build 15202.10000 or later
• Word on Mac, version 16.61, build 22040100 or later

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Install for yourself

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Deploy to your organization

Organization admins can deploy Claude for Word through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. After deployment, users can activate the Claude add-in from Tools, Add-ins on Mac or Home, Add-ins on Windows, sign in, and start working.

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Deploy with a custom manifest

For IT administrators deploying to multiple users when the Office Store is disabled: After deployment, users see Claude in Word’s Home ribbon and sign in with their Claude credentials on first use.

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Connect through a third-party platform

If your organization routes AI traffic through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, Azure AI Foundry, or an LLM gateway, your admin can deploy the add-in without individual Claude accounts. See Use Claude for M365 with third-party platforms.

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Key features

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Read and understand documents

Ask Claude questions about specific sections, clauses, or defined terms in your document. Claude provides answers with clickable citations that navigate directly to the referenced section. Example prompts:

• “What’s the liability cap and is it mutual?”
• “Summarize the key commercial terms in this agreement.”
• “What assumptions drive the revenue forecast in section 3?”

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Edit selected text

Select a passage and tell Claude what to change. Claude edits only the selection while preserving surrounding styles, numbering, and formatting. New text inherits the paragraph style, font, and numbering of the surrounding content. Example prompts:

• “Tighten this paragraph and drop the passive voice.”
• “Rewrite this clause to make the indemnification mutual.”
• “Simplify this section for a non-technical audience.”

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Tracked changes mode

When you enter tracked changes mode, Claude’s edits land as tracked revisions. The original text is visible as a deletion and the new text as an insertion, all reviewable in Word’s native review pane. Review every edit before accepting it, and undo with Word’s standard Ctrl+Z on Windows or Cmd+Z on Mac if you want to revert. Example prompts:

• “Rewrite section 4.2 to cap damages at 12 months of fees, and make it mutual.”
• “Draft a mutual indemnification clause after section 8.”

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Comment-driven editing

Claude reads comment threads in your document, understands what text each thread is anchored to, and can work through them one by one. For each comment, Claude edits the anchored passage and replies to the thread with a note explaining what it did. Example prompts:

• “Work through my open comments.”
• “Address the comment on the liability section.”

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Summarize counterparty redlines

When a counterparty returns a document with tracked changes, Claude can read and summarize what they changed. Ask Claude to group changes by severity or flag the ones worth pushing back on. Example prompts:

• “Summarize what the other side changed and flag anything that’s worth discussing.”
• “Which of these redlines are dealbreakers?”

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Fill templates

Draft sections in your document’s heading and paragraph styles. Claude uses your template’s formatting when generating content, so new headings, bullets, and table entries match what’s already there. Tables populate in place without reflowing layout or changing column widths. Example prompts:

• “Draft the Key Risks section with four risks in the template’s style.”
• “Populate the summary table with revenue, gross margin, and net retention for the last three years.”

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Semantic navigation

Find every provision or passage in your document that touches a specific theme. Claude returns thematic matches, not just keyword hits, and each result navigates to the relevant location on click. Example prompts:

• “Find every provision touching data retention.”
• “Where does this agreement address termination?”

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Connectors and Skills

Claude for Word supports connectors for pulling external context into your document, and Skills for applying reusable task recipes. See Connectors and Skills for details.

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Set persistent instructions

Open Settings in the add-in sidebar and use the Instructions field to set preferences that apply to every conversation in Word. Instructions are useful for tone and style conventions such as “use formal tone” or “follow APA citation style”, document structure preferences, or recurring context about your workflow. Instructions you set in Word only apply to Word. They are separate from Instructions you set in Excel or PowerPoint.

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Work across M365 apps

Claude for Word shares context with Claude for Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, so a single conversation can span your open document, workbook, deck, and inbox. See Work across M365 apps.

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Context and session management

The add-in handles long sessions for you so a single conversation can span an entire workflow.

• Auto-compaction: longer conversations are automatically compacted into new conversations to avoid running out of context. See Understanding usage and length limits.

Your use of Claude for Word is associated with your existing Claude account and is subject to the same usage limits.

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Models available

You can switch between Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Opus 4.6, and Claude Sonnet 4.6 when using the add-in.

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Data handling

Inputs and outputs are deleted on the backend within 30 days of receipt or generation, except in cases outlined in How long do you store my organization’s data?. Data is cached for a number of hours after deletion so users can access context in recently closed documents. Chat history is stored locally in your browser using IndexedDB. Conversations are not stored on Anthropic’s servers, are not synced across devices, and can be cleared from Settings at any time. Claude for Word does not inherit custom data retention settings your organization might have set. Activity is not included in Enterprise audit logs or the Compliance API. Claude reads the content of your currently open document, including text, comments, tracked changes, footnotes, tables, and bookmarks. It only accesses the document you have open in Word. For highly sensitive or regulated data, follow your organization’s data handling policies.

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Current limitations

As a beta feature, Claude for Word is not recommended for:

• Final client deliverables or counterparty sends without human review.
• Litigation filings or audit-critical documents without verification.
• Replacing legal or financial judgment.
• Documents containing highly sensitive or privileged data without proper controls.

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Unsupported versions

The add-in does not run on these Word versions.

• Word 2016 and 2019 perpetual or volume license.
• Word on iPad.
• Word on Android.
• Microsoft 365 Word builds older than Version 2205 on Windows or version 16.61 on Mac.
• Legacy .doc files. Save as .docx first.

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Prompt injection risk

Prompt injection attacks hide malicious instructions in document content such as text, comments, tracked changes, headers, and footers to trick Claude into taking unintended actions. Testing has identified scenarios where Claude for Word can be manipulated to:

• Extract and share sensitive information through web searches containing your sensitive data or file system access that exposes proprietary information.
• Modify critical content such as contract terms or financial figures.
• Perform destructive actions without verification when allowed to act unsupervised.

When Claude proposes a risky operation, you are asked to confirm before it runs. Review confirmations carefully, especially for content from external sources.

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Best practices

Follow these guidelines to use Claude for Word safely and effectively.

• Always review tracked changes before accepting them.
• Verify that outputs match your firm’s playbook and standard positions.
• Use appropriate permissions and access controls.
• Maintain human oversight for client-facing work.

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Example use cases

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Legal contract review

Prompts that review and revise contracts and counterparty redlines.

• “Summarize the key commercial terms: parties, term, governing law, and anything off-market.”
• “Flag provisions that deviate from standard market position, ranked by severity.”
• “Make the indemnification mutual and insert our standard fallback language.”
• “Work through all five reviewer comments as tracked changes.”
• “What did the counterparty change, and which revisions are dealbreakers?”

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Finance memo drafting

Prompts that build out investment memos and finance writeups.

• “Draft the Investment Thesis section with three points, pulling the numbers from the uploaded 10-K.”
• “Populate the summary table with revenue, gross margin, and FCF for the last three years.”
• “Too generic on point two. Use the customer count from the deck.”
• “Address the partner’s comment on the Risks section.”

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Document QA and consistency

Prompts that check a document for internal consistency and quality.

• “Flag inconsistent defined terms and broken cross-references.”
• “Check the numbering scheme for gaps.”
• “Proofread for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.”
• “Is the same party referred to by different names anywhere in this document?”

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General document editing

Prompts that tighten or restructure prose.

• “Tighten section 4 and drop the passive voice.”
• “Rewrite this for a non-technical audience.”
• “Add a fourth risk addressing customer concentration.”
• “Define this term and use it consistently throughout.”