Diary

Getting Started with Claude from Scratch: A Complete Guide to Natural Writing and Long-Form Summarization

Developed and provided byAnthropic, the generative AI “Claude” is highly regarded for its ability to generate overwhelmingly natural and fluent text compared to other AIs, as well as its capacity to process massive amounts of text data at once.

This article provides a complete guide for beginners who have never used Claude before. It objectively explains the account creation process, how to draft natural business texts, and practical ways to summarize long documents like PDFs.

What is Claude? Differences from ChatGPT

Claude is an AI assistant capable of text generation, summarization, translation, and coding based on natural language instructions. When compared to typical AIs like ChatGPT, it possesses the following distinct strengths:

• Extremely Natural Language Generation: It outputs text that feels remarkably human, with fewer unnatural, overly polite, or machine-translated nuances often found in AI-generated content.
• Strong at Long-Form Processing and Multiple Files: It can process an industry-leading context window of around 200,000 tokens (equivalent to hundreds of thousands of characters) in a single prompt. It excels at tasks requiring the simultaneous reading of multiple PDFs or lengthy meeting minutes to compare and synthesize summaries.
• Artifacts Feature: It features a dedicated UI window that displays generated website code, previews, charts, and documents alongside the chat interface, allowing for easy viewing and editing.

How to Start and Register for a Claude Account

Anyone can start using Claude for free with an email address or a Google account.

1. Access the official Claude website via your web browser.
2. Click “Continue with Google” in the center of the screen to link your Google account, or enter your email address and click “Continue with email.”
3. Enter the verification code sent to your registered email address.
4. If phone number verification is requested, enter your mobile phone number and verify it using the code sent via SMS.
5. Agree to the terms of service presented during your initial login, and the chat interface will be available immediately.

Recommended Uses and Prompt Examples for Beginners

By refining your prompt (instruction text) to the AI, you can maximize Claude’s “natural language generation” and “long-form processing” capabilities.

1. Drafting Natural Business Emails

Simply provide the context and bullet points of your requirements to generate a natural business email that requires almost no manual editing.

[Prompt Example]

Draft a business email to Mr. Tanaka at [Company Name] based on the requirements below. Avoid overly humble expressions and keep the tone concise and natural.

• Requirement 1: Request to reschedule tomorrow’s 2:00 PM meeting due to system troubleshooting on our end.
• Requirement 2: Alternative time slots are next Tuesday afternoon or anytime next Wednesday.
• Requirement 3: Include a brief apology for the inconvenience caused.

2. Batch Summarization of Multiple PDFs or Meeting Minutes

You can upload multiple files (PDFs, Word documents, text data) using the attachment icon (paperclip) in the chat input field and have Claude summarize them all at once.

[Prompt Example]

Read the three attached PDF documents (Company A’s proposal, Company B’s proposal, and our internal requirements document) and organize/summarize the information in the following format:

1. The decisive differences between Company A’s and Company B’s proposals (3 bullet points).
2. Objective reasons indicating which company best satisfies the internal requirements document.
3. An overall summary of about 200 words to report to the management team.

3. Creating Presentation Slide Structures

Claude can also be used to visually organize information, such as creating the structure for a presentation.

[Prompt Example]

Think of a presentation slide structure for an “Information Security Training” session for new employees.The presentation should consist of exactly 10 slides. Summarize the title and the key speaking points for each slide using bullet points.

Limitations and Precautions of the Free Version

While Claude is extremely capable, there are several limitations and precautions when using the free version.

• Message Limits: In the free tier, there is a limit to the number of messages you can send within a certain timeframe. This limit varies depending on server congestion and the length of the text being processed (e.g., attachment sizes). If you reach the limit, you will need to wait a few hours before using it again.
• No Real-Time Web Search: Unlike ChatGPT or Perplexity, Claude does not currently feature a standard built-in web search function to autonomously fetch the latest news. If you want answers based on specific recent information, you must copy and paste the text of the article directly into the prompt.
• Data Privacy: Text and files input into the free version may be used as training data to improve the AI’s quality. Be absolutely sure never to input highly confidential information, personal customer data, or private internal company documents.