Claude Adds a Sidebar to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Summary

Anthropic launched a Claude sidebar for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides as a public beta add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace. It can rewrite and restyle documents, write formulas and build tables in Sheets, and generate slides. An “ask before edits” mode lets you preview changes first. All paid Claude users can access it.

Why it matters

If your drafts, budgets, and decks already live in Google’s apps, you can now get AI help without copying text back and forth.

HTD Says

The “ask before edits” mode is the smart part here, because nobody wants an AI rewriting a document they have spent a week on. Any productivity update is a win in my book. Many public AI services offer integration with Google (Docs, Calendar, Gmail, Drive, etc.), and now it seems Anthropic is taking things to the next level.

I use Google Docs as well as Office 365, and I’m guessing this Claude sidebar will work much better than Microsoft Copilot does within Office. I have pretty much given up hope with Copilot, especially when it comes to formatting and visually reworking a document.

Of course, you can always open an Office document in Google Docs and see how well the new Claude Sidebar works with it. You can also try Google Gemini with all of this. Gemini is more “native” to Google Docs than Claude.

Source:

9to5Google