"Make this table easier to read" with your spreadsheet still open: Claude now sits beside your Google files

What changed: Claude now sits beside the file you have open

According to Anthropic's announcement, you can now add Claude to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. When you open a file, Claude appears as a sidebar (a narrow workspace along the edge of the screen), reads the open file, and makes fixes right there.

In Docs, it polishes your writing and offers bigger rewrites as suggestions you can choose to apply or dismiss. In Sheets, it can create formulas, summary tables, charts, and new tabs. In Slides, it builds new pages that match the deck's design and also checks whether text spills off the slide or is hard to read.

It's a trial release (beta) available on every paid plan. You install it from the Google Workspace Marketplace, Google's collection of add-ons, and open it from the file's "Extensions" menu. You can now ask right inside the file, without carrying things over to Claude.

Why it helps people starting from zero

The biggest change is that copying, pasting, and pasting back go away. Claude can also see the part you have selected, so if you select "these three rows" or "this column" before asking, you don't have to explain in words which part you mean.

If you're worried about things being rewritten without your say, you can choose the setting that asks for confirmation on every change ("Ask before edits"). With this setting, each of Claude's changes waits for your confirmation, and only the ones you approve go in. Once you're used to it, you can also switch to the setting that proceeds without asking ("Accept all edits").

Claude can read only the file you opened and the connections you turned on, limited to what you already have permission to see in Google. You can make fixes while checking each change one at a time, so it's easy to hand things over with confidence even when starting from zero.

How to ask first: select what you want fixed, then talk it through

Even though you can now ask beside the file, the way to go about it is the same as asking a person. Once you've selected the range you want fixed, rather than jumping straight to "fix this," it's best to explain what you want to do with the file and have Claude tell you how it plans to fix it first.

For a household budget spreadsheet, for example, the exchange looks like this.

You: (selecting the whole table) I keep a monthly household budget. From next month, I want to see at a glance how much I spent on what, month by month. Looking at this table, can you picture how to summarize it?
Claude: For example, I could make a "monthly totals by category" table in a new tab, with a bar chart by month below it. I won't touch the original table.
You: Nice. But the chart only needs food and household goods. Go ahead and make it that way.

If you ask about the shape first, the changes that appear on the confirmation screen are instantly recognizable as "the thing we just talked about." Rather than handing it over with just "make this table easier to read," consulting from the purpose with "I want to see it month by month at a glance. How would you summarize it?" leads to fewer mismatches. Select the range, explain the purpose, and ask how it will be fixed before handing it over.

Summary

Claude now sits beside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, so you can talk things through and make fixes without leaving the open file. Copying and pasting back are gone, and you can move forward while checking each change, so you can keep growing the files you already use every day.

Even when where you ask changes, the approach of explaining why you want something fixed before handing it over stays the same. This idea comes up again and again, whether in chat, beside a file, or wherever you use Claude in the future.

Next time you fix a spreadsheet or document, try selecting the range you want fixed and starting with "here's what I want to do with this".