Document Processing Skills

Skills for creating, editing, and analyzing Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Excel documents

Document processing skills enable Claude to work with professional document formats including DOCX, PDF, PPTX, and XLSX files.

Available Skills

DOCX

Create, read, edit, and manipulate Word documents with professional formatting

PDF

Process PDFs: extract text/tables, merge/split files, fill forms, and add watermarks

PPTX

Create and edit PowerPoint presentations with design-forward layouts

XLSX

Build and edit Excel spreadsheets with formulas, formatting, and financial models

DOCX (Word Documents)

Use the DOCX skill whenever you need to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents.

When to use:

• Creating professional documents with formatting (headings, tables of contents, page numbers)
• Extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files
• Working with tracked changes and comments
• Converting content into polished Word documents

Key capabilities:

• Create documents from scratch using docx-js
• Edit existing documents by unpacking/editing XML/repacking
• Professional formatting: styles, lists, tables, images
• Headers/footers, page breaks, table of contents
• Tracked changes and comments

View DOCX Documentation →

PDF Processing

Use the PDF skill for any task involving PDF files.

When to use:

• Extracting text or tables from PDFs
• Merging or splitting PDF files
• Filling PDF forms
• Adding watermarks or encrypting PDFs
• OCR on scanned documents

Key capabilities:

• Text and table extraction with pdfplumber
• Merge, split, rotate pages with pypdf
• Create PDFs from scratch with reportlab
• Fill forms programmatically
• Password protection and encryption

View PDF Documentation →

PPTX (PowerPoint Presentations)

Use the PPTX skill when working with presentation files.

When to use:

• Creating slide decks or pitch presentations
• Reading or extracting content from presentations
• Editing existing slide files
• Working with templates and layouts

Key capabilities:

• Read presentations with markitdown
• Edit via XML manipulation
• Create from scratch with pptxgenjs
• Design guidance for professional-looking slides
• Color palettes, typography, and layout best practices

Design principles:

• Choose bold, content-informed color palettes
• Every slide needs a visual element (image, chart, icon, or shape)
• Use interesting font pairings (avoid Arial defaults)
• Include proper spacing and breathing room

View PPTX Documentation →

XLSX (Excel Spreadsheets)

Use the XLSX skill when working with spreadsheet files.

When to use:

• Opening, reading, or editing .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv, or .tsv files
• Creating spreadsheets from scratch or from data
• Building financial models with formulas
• Cleaning or restructuring tabular data

Key capabilities:

• Data analysis with pandas
• Formula-based spreadsheets with openpyxl
• Professional formatting and styling
• Financial model standards (color coding, number formats)
• Automatic formula recalculation with LibreOffice

Critical principles:

• Always use Excel formulas instead of hardcoded values
• Zero formula errors required (#REF!, #DIV/0!, etc.)
• Follow financial color coding standards (blue for inputs, black for formulas)
• Document all assumptions and data sources

View XLSX Documentation →

Common Workflows

Document Creation

All document skills support creating files from scratch with professional formatting and styling.

Editing Existing Files

DOCX and PPTX use XML-based editing workflows. XLSX uses openpyxl for preserving formulas and formatting.

Converting Between Formats

Use skill-specific conversion tools (pandoc for DOCX, LibreOffice for PDF conversion, etc.).

Quality Assurance

All skills include validation and verification steps to ensure professional output.