Claude Cowork Tutorial for Beginners

0:00In this video, I'll show you how to use Claude Cowork step by step. We'll start with how to get Claude Cowork and set it up. Then I'll show you how to use it to work with files, documents and spreadsheets, connect to your apps and automate repetitive tasks. And you don't need to know how to code to use any of this. By the end, you'll know how to use Claude Cowork to get real work done. I'm Kevin and let's dive in. To get started, head to Claude. You'll find a link right here at the bottom of the screen. Here in the center, you'll see the familiar prompt box. And at the

0:34bottom, we can switch between chat and Cowork. So, what's the difference between a regular Claude Chat and Cowork? Chat is ideal for asking questions and getting responses. Cowork on the other hand is designed to actually get work done for you. You can give Claude access to your files and tools, both on your computer and in the cloud, and it can actually work through tasks for you. You'll see exactly what I mean as we go through the tutorial. Let's switch over to Cowork. As a quick note, to use Cowork, you'll need one of Claude's paid plans. It's not currently available with the free plan. You can use Claude Cowork directly on the web. Here, you can upload

1:11files and even take a screenshot. However, if you want the full Cowork experience, including the ability to work with files and folders directly on your computer, I recommend using the Claude Desktop app. To get the desktop app, go down to the bottom left and click on your profile, then click Get Apps and Extensions. I'll download the Windows version. Claude Desktop is also available for Mac and Linux. Now that we have Claude Desktop installed, let's put Cowork to use. Here on my computer, I have a folder with sales data for my small business, the Kevin Cookie Company, for the first three months of the year. Now, some of the data is in text files. Here, we have some in PDFs,

1:50and I even have some in spreadsheets. Now, before you judge me, remember, this is a small business. Normally, if I wanted to analyze all of this data, I'd have to open each file, combine everything together, and then build out my analysis. We don't have time for that. Instead, let's see if Cowork can handle all of this for us. Back in Cowork, I'll click here to give Claude access to a folder

2:12on my computer. I'll select this folder right here, and then down below, I'll click on Select. Up above, I'll click on Allow, and now Claude can work with the files in this folder. Let's enter a prompt. Right over here, I'll ask it to analyze all of the sales data in this folder and then create an interactive dashboard that shows how the business is performing. That's something I'd like to know. Right over here, let's send that. Over here, let's click on Allow. Now, Claude gets to work, and over on the right-hand side, we can follow the progress as it works through each step of this task. It's not just looking at one file and giving us a response. It's working through

2:46all of these different files, combining the data, analyzing it, and then creating something new for us. And there we go. Cowork went through all of our files, pulled the data together, and built this interactive sales dashboard. Now, right here at the top, we have all of our key metrics. Below that, we could see our sales trends, and down at the bottom, Claude even pulled out some key insights from our data. Now, and I like this. Claude even noticed a potential data quality issue and flagged it for me instead of just blindly including it. Now, over on the left-hand side, Claude also gives us the option to save this as an artifact. An artifact is basically an interactive

3:23page that Claude saves for us so we can easily come back to it later. Right here, I'll click on Create. Now that I've saved this artifact, to get back to it in the future, up on top, I'll open up the sidebar, and here I could click into Artifacts, and there I see the dashboard. I could click into that. And this dashboard really shows the difference between chat and Cowork. Instead of just answering a question, Cowork worked through multiple files and steps to create a finished result for us, or in this case, a dashboard. Let's go back into Cowork. I'll click back and then back again. Now, right down below, I can also download the dashboard if I'd like to open it up outside of

3:59Claude. I could simply click right here. Now, so far, everything we've given Cowork has been stored locally on my computer, but what if the files that we want Cowork to work with live somewhere else, like in the cloud? The other six months of sales data for the Kevin Cookie Company are stored in Google Drive. Instead of downloading those files and moving them onto my computer, we can connect Claude directly to Google Drive using something called connectors. To add a connector, let's go over to the left-hand side menu and then go down to Customize. And within Customize, over on the left-hand side, scroll down until you see Connectors. Here, you'll see all of the

4:39different apps and services that you can connect to Claude. Now, Google Drive happens to be one of the most popular connectors. Right over here, I’ll click on Connect. And in the top right, let's click Connect again. Now that we've connected to Google Drive, let's go back to our conversation. Now that we've connected Google Drive, down below in Cowork, I'll type in my prompt, find the remaining Kevin Cookie Company sales data in Google Drive and use it to update our dashboard right over here with the remaining 12 weeks of data. I've intentionally left it a little bit vague. Let's see if Cowork can figure it out. Over here, let's send it. And there we go. Claude found

5:14the additional sales data in Google Drive and used it to update our existing dashboard. Now here at the top, we can see that we're now working with 24 weeks of data. Now, all of our KPIs and charts in the dashboard have been updated and Claude even refreshed the key insights way at the bottom with all of the additional data. Very impressive. Now, if the result isn't exactly what you want, you can continue working with Cowork to make changes. As an example, the Kevin Cookie Company uses blue and maize as our brand colors, and this dashboard obviously isn't. Luckily, we could easily change that. In the bottom left-hand corner in the prompt field, I'll ask it to update

5:54the dashboard to use our brand colors of blue and maize. Once I finish typing that in, over here, let's send that off. And after just a few moments, over on the right-hand side, we can see that Claude updated the same dashboard with our new colors. They're very nice. We've done great work, but each week we get a new report, and I want Cowork to analyze it the same way every time. Instead of writing out the same instructions over and over again, we can create a skill and schedule it. A skill basically teaches Claude how you want a specific type of work done. Right down below, I'll type in my prompt and feel free to pause it if you'd like to read it. Basically, I'll ask

6:33Claude to create a skill that checks for new sales data, compares it with the previous week and pulls out the most important insights and updates our dashboard. Claude will take these instructions and turn them into a reusable skill. Let's do that. Over on the right-hand side, I can now review the skill. If I want to make any changes, I can refine it by entering another prompt down below. Now, for now, I think this looks good. So right up on top, let's save the skill. Next, let's head over to Google Drive and add some new sales data. Here in Google Drive, I'll upload three additional weeks of data. Once that finishes uploading, let's go back into Cowork and run the skill. Back here

7:09in Cowork, I'll ask it to run my weekly sales review skill using the latest sales data. Then let's send that. And there we go. Cowork followed our skill and worked through the report using the process we defined. Over on the right-hand side in the dashboard, we can now see that the three most recent weeks have now been included. This is great, but there's still one problem. I'd have to remember to come back and run this every single week. Instead, let's schedule it. I'd like to run this skill every Monday morning. So down below, I'll type in my prompt to schedule this. And right over here, let's send that off. Now, right up here, we can see that it's scheduled. Every week,

7:45Cowork will automatically run our sales review using the skill we created. So, the skill defines how we want the work done and the schedule defines when we want Cowork to do it. Now, Claude already has quite a few built-in connectors, but what if you want to give Cowork access to even more apps and actions? That's where Zapier comes in, the sponsor of today's video. With Zapier MCP, you can give Cowork access to thousands of apps and actions through a single connection, and you can control exactly which actions you want Claude to have access to. Let me show you how this works. First, head to the following website and set up a free account. Once you finish signing in,

8:23over on the left-hand side, click on MCP Servers. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. You could think of it as a standard way for AI tools like Claude to connect to other apps and take actions. On this page, down at the bottom, let's click on Claude. Copy the prompt right up here and then open Claude and paste it in. Back in Zapier, I can now choose which apps I want Claude to work with and which actions I want to be able to take. Now, in this example, I'll add Trello. Click on Add Apps. Let's search for Trello, and here, I'll click on this. I'll select all of the different

8:55actions and tools, and then click on Connect. Here, I can see that I've added a connection to Trello. Let's now put it to work in Claude. Back here in Claude, let's ask it to analyze our sales and create a marketing task in Trello. Over here, let's send that off. And there we go. Here in Trello, I can see that there's now a new card that Cowork just created along with its recommended action plan. Now, Trello is also available as a built-in Claude connector, but the real value of Zapier MCP is that it gives you one way to connect Claude Cowork to thousands of different apps and

9:26actions. And because you choose which actions Claude can access, you stay in control over what it can actually do. I've included a link to Zapier below if you'd like to give it a try for yourself. And that's how to use Claude Cowork. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.