Power User Guide to Claude in Excel & PowerPoint - 26 Working Tips
Published: February 10, 2026
Claude Code is my bread and butter from local automation to full stack apps. Past few days diving deep into Claude in Excel and PowerPoint. Same Claude experience. I had it do a xgboost response model, a Live RBI Macroeconomic Dashboard for Jan 2026 & a NIFTY50 30 days forward returns analysis with scenarios. Had it do formatting, decks, validations and code outputs. All files shared in public.
Google Drive : Analysis & Dashboards built with Claude in Excel
Here's are my top tips - based on using Claude in Excel the past few days, AI Coders like Claude for the past two year and doing analytics & models the past two decades.
1. Use Voice Dictation
Use voice dictation. 3x faster than typing - from Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code (link below for his top tips). Win+H on windows & Fn Twice on Mac.
2. Provide context
Claude cant read your mind yet. See the NIFTY50 analysis. Its first recommendations were junk and good only for academic purposes. It was missing the domain related nuances on how traders actually want to look at returns in a manner it is meaningful to help with trade setup decision. But when i explained it got it pretty quickly.
3. Know your concepts
'Build xgboost model' from this data does not work. What it creates at first pass is unusable in business You need to provide some direction on approach, hyperparameter and output. It does not do decile tables by default, which is actually what is required for business. Ask for it.
4. Validate
'Validate this properly ok' is not enough Go granular. See the validation sheet in the RBI Macroeconomic dashboard and Index Return Analysis (link below). I had asked it calculate totals with formulas in each sheet below the columns, then compare that with python output and also with a SUMIF output from the database sheet that you created. All three needs to match. Then i test checked its formulas.
5. Ask for formulas
It tends to put values. Ask explicitly for formulas where you need traceability and audit trail
6. Use LET
For complex formulas ask it to use LET where necessary - helps to simplify many complex formulas. See live examples (Google drive link shared above)
7. Iterative processing with Lambdas
It's an expert with Lambdas and lambda helpers. Direct it to use lambdas where required. See live examples (Google drive link shared above)
8. Use advanced formulas
Spend time and be aware of the various new advanced excel functions and their capabilities - from REGEXTRACT, Dynamic arrays, array manipulation, text manipulation. It tends to use the traditional formulas more. Guide it to use one of the more relevant advanced ones where necessary.
9. Python not always required
Advanced formulas using LET, LAMBDAS, dynamic arrays, REGEX etc can do a lot of things that Python can do. Plus there is no black box. You have full audit trail
10. Use Python where required
Use it for advanced statistical analysis, ML models, PDF extraction, advanced charts with matplotlib. Be aware of its python capabilities and limitations. See my blog below for a 18 pager deck on what it can and cannot do with Python
Check out this post below for a more detailed dive into python angle.
Python In Excel - Claude Vs. xlwings Lite - What works and what doesn't
11. Claude gets stuck. Help it
I had asked it to prepare a dynamic chart. It got stuck and kept going round in circles eating up my tokens. I stopped it and had it do a simpler chart. Didn't have the time, else would have gone a little deeper to see where it is getting stuck and unstuck it. Watch what it is doing and be ready to intervene.
12. Go one step at a time
For multi step process - don't dump and run. See the NIFTY50 forward distribution analysis. I first had it do the diagnostics sheet before going for the full analysis
13. Brainstorm with it
See the NIFTY50 analysis. For the forward returns distro I was brainstorming with it for probably 15-30 minutes. Aligning on the exact methodology and computation. Only when i was fully aligned did i let it execute. Its first recommendations were junk. It was missing the domain related nuances. Once it got what I was looking its suggestions were brilliant.
14. Have it format the way you like
Great at formatting. Just describe how you want it formatted. By default it uses a lot of colors and your worksheet starts to look like a toy shop and that's not what you may always want
15. How to automate
Claude in Excel can't do it. For automation your options are: xlwings Lite if you want to get it done inside Excel or an offline python script - Claude Code is bundled so it can do that too. However what you can do is, do the first iteration in Excel, have it output the reconstructed code and hand it to Claude Code for either an offline script or an xlwings Lite script. See my xlwings Lite starter page (link below) for what you can do with xlwings Lite - live apps, guides and more.
16. Conserve Tokens
Many tasks are very token heavy. Especially Python ones as all the data passes through its context. Check your account page for usage as you are working. After a time you will automatically have an idea of how much tokens it is eating up. Many tasks can be better done by Claude Code with offline python scripts or in xlwings Lite. Ask Claude Code how it can be done and it will guide you step by step. You can furhter save costs by offloading python and xlwings-lite script work to Gemini CLI and Google Antigravity (they have ... or at least used to have decent free tiers)
17. Use Claude Code
Claude Code comes bundled. Very powerful for offline python automation scripts, simple HTML tools as well as full stack apps as well as windows desktop use. Start to use this. Check my blog site for guides and resource links. Great video tutorials there on youtube.
18. Ask it to output Python code
Please note that it works in python in iterations and doesn't have a script saved. So what it shares is a reconstructed code and not the actual one it ran. But it is still useful if you want to repeat it next time or hand over to Claude Code for automation.
19. Be aware of what it can and can't do
It can't do API Calls and as well many python packages are unusable. Also you might get different results different times so not repeatable to that extent unless you have it use formulas. And you can upload a file (upto 30MB onlyh) but can't write to local disk. See my blog post with a document with details on its abilities and limitations.
20. Use web search
It can do regular web search. Use that for deep research and have it compile the results into excel tables
21. Extract info and text from images
It uses its natural vision model when you upload an image. Use that to extract info from images, charts etc
22. Process PDF
It has python packages for processing PDF. Use that to extract info from PDF pages and share back as compiled data and charts in Excel. Just be mindful that though it does have powerful python packages its native PDF parsing is better however that is not available so it uses the python packages.
23. Run statistical tests and ML Models
It has scikit-learn, xgboost, scipy & statsmodels. Great for many quick models with smaller and cleaner data and certain type of models which might be doable with lesser iteration. But keep in mind you cant see the python code directly though you can have it output the reconstructed version. The right tools for ML models and iterative analysis is Jupyter and Colab but Claude in Excel would be great in many cases. Depends on the use case. See my detailed tool compatibility and usage post below
24. Data security and privacy
Data goes to Anthropic with the python sandbox. But keep in mind that as soon as you use any AI all your instructions prompts and sample data is going there. So there are nuances here.
Where Does Your Data Go? Here is some more nuance on where your data and code goes:
Claude in Excel runs Python on Anthropic's server-side sandbox. Your data leaves your machine, gets processed there, results come back. For my current clients (small / mid sized businesses) - not an issue, they are already using Claude Code and their code bases are already hitting Anthropic servers.
But for banks and large enterprises with dedicated infra and tight data governance policies - this would be an issue. Many of them run Claude and other LLMs through AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI or Azure - where the inference stays within their own cloud infra. Data never hits Anthropic's servers directly.
But here's a catch - if your organization is already using Claude Code / Cursor / Codex on Anthropic/ OpenAI's servers (not through Bedrock/Vertex), then your sensitive codebases are already going there. Then this becomes a non issue.
So it depends on your setup. Know what you / your org is working with.
25. Use the right tool
No single can do it all. For Excel AI assistance its Claude in Excel. For python automation in Excel it is xlwings Lite. For local automation it is Claude Code. For tools builds, apps builds it is Claude Code. For ML models it is Jypyter / Colab. Yes tools have overlaps and in situations its better to build a model with Claude Code than Jupyter. Use judgment. See my detailed posts below on tool comparisions.
26. Use Claude in PowerPoint too
Does a great job of all the deck heavy lifting, formatting and structuring saving you hours and hours of your time. Also has Python access in case you want to do a direct data processing with output to deck.
Resource Links
Analysis and Dashboards built with Claude in Excel
Claude in Excel - Posts with Shared Files
- Claude in Excel - XGBoost Response Model with train-test split, AUC and full decile table
- Claude in Excel - Nifty50 Return Distribution Analysis (30 days forward) 2008 to 2026
- Claude in Excel - RBI Macroeconomic Dashboard - 50 charts from RBI data
- Python In Excel - Claude Vs. xlwings Lite - What works and what doesn't
xlwings Lite - Python in Excel
xlwings Lite Starter Page - 7 live apps, 3 campaign guides, practice labs, AI coder instructions and more. Everything you need to get started with Python in Excel using xlwings Lite.